Beauty is in the Eye
by AnimeMaster168
Summary: He isn't as simple minded as everyone thought. This is a story about what would be, had the little boy, scorned by many, just had a little guidance and light in his life. Read as he becomes what many only dream of becoming. Decision  NaruHinTeli.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone! Like I Promissed, here's chapter 1, revised and ready to go. You'll notice I changed a bit of the storyline, just a tad bit, to make it a little more believable in acordance to the other parts of the story, so it's not contradicting itself. Tell me what you think and weather you liked the changes or not. As for me, it's off to chapter two, and fifteen thousand words to look over... Gods I'm hating the fact that it's so long right now. Oh well, we reap what we sow. See ya next re-visit.**

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**BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE…**

Chapter 1

It was a wonderful day in Konoha. The sun was bright in the sky, casting its look over the city. Looking down at the small dots that were hastily moving through what looked like a maze. These dots were none other than the inhabitants of this great city. Moving hastily, the shopkeepers were setting up their shops, getting ready for a good day of money making. If one were too look closer, they would see swift shadows moving across rooftops at fast speeds, either heading toward one of the three gates that lead to the outside world, setting out on missions, or heading towards the training grounds where they would no doubt train their body, mind, and spirit to become deadly in the art of killing and assassination. Others would be seen heading to an almost cone like shaped building , which resided at the very back of the village, right next to a monument carved into the very cliff that provided the city with protection from the side.

This monument consisted of 4 carved faces. These faces were dug out into the very cliff and each face was that of the great four Hokage that have looked over the city. Starting from the right, the first face that we see is that of the first Hokage, the very man that created the village. He was gifted with the ability to manipulate flora. Using his power, he created a village for the people, now known as Konoha, surrounded by vast forests consisting of trees of all kind. Village Hidden in the Leaf, fitting don't you think? Next to the face of the first Hokage, we see the face of the second Hokage. He was also one that was very gifted, blessed with the power to create torrents of water from seemingly out of the air. Oh but it was more than just making water appear, he had great control over the water element, and he used that power to create lakes in the city and its borders. Next to the third Hokage's face we see the face of a man known as the third Hokage. Now, he was a special case, the third Hokage wasn't put into the powerful position because he had some miraculously special ability with anything. If anything, he was given the position because he was a wise and strong man. His knowledge and tactics in diplomacy were second to no one else. Next to the face of the third Hokage, we come to see the visage of Konoha's pride, the Fourth Hokage. He was a man that was like no other. Becoming Hokage at the very Tender age of 24, the fourth was the youngest Hokage to ever be given the position in history. The fourth was given his position after he turned a losing war, into a blazing victory, known to his enemies and to his allies as the 'Yellow Flash'

As the sun swept its gaze over the monument, it set its vision on the city and one boy. This boy is where our story starts, and it is this boy, were out story ends. This young lad, this young, inconsequential boy, this one person, who at first glance seems so insignificant, this boy who is no taller than 4' 5", this boy who is now making his way to what seems like to be a building meant for education, this one little boy will change the fate of the very people of this city, the very city itself. It's with this one boy where a series of events shall unfurl around, and one after another, this lad shall overcome and become, what he has dreamed of becoming since he first learned to talk.

This boy is none other than, Uzumaki Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto, Container of the strongest and most feared demon on the planet. Uzumaki Naruto, container of the one known as, Kyuubi no Kitsune. The legendary Nine Tailed Fox.

Naruto was having one those days again, those days where nothing goes right for you. It had been a wonderful morning. The Sun was shining brightly as it made its accent into the dark sky, illuminating it into a vast array of orange, yellow, red, and blue. It was a spectacle that he had loved to watch ever since he was able to wake up at the ungodly hour of 5 am. He had woken up, a good hour and a half before the sun was due to rise, so being the painfully determined and ever energetic boy he was, he had decided to get in some early, pre-dawn training.

Quickly getting out of bed, he stripped down till he was bare as he made his way into the little washroom that was connected to his bedroom. Turning on the water and setting it to a reasonable temperature of not to cold, nor to hot, he set about getting the soap and shampoo ready. Once set, he took his shower, cleaning himself down and cleaning his sun kissed hair with the forest dew scented shampoo. He couldn't explain it, but the smell of the forest right before dawn gave him a sense of peace and tranquility. It had been like that since he could remember.

Getting out of the shower, he dried himself and lightly dried his hair, letting it still be fairly wet, allowing the water to keep his head cool and calm. Dressing into his usual cloths, an orange jumpsuit he had the displeasure of buying. Only reason he had the accursed textile was that it was one of the only things he was able to buy without the shopkeeper charging him an absurd amount for. That was another thing he couldn't explain. Ever since he could remember, the village civilians had always been a little more than slightly hateful of him. He didn't know why they were so cruel to him, he couldn't remember doing anything that could have earned such animosity towards him but alas, that was just another mystery for him that he was hoping would clear up soon.

Shaking his head to rid him of the dark thoughts that were bound to come with his current way of thinking, he dressed himself in the jumpsuit. This time opting to keep the jacket open, showing he was wearing a black shirt underneath, one that had a very intricate red, Chinese dragon weaving it's way around the chest and mid section of the shirt, the head of the dragon coming to rest right in the middle of his chest, muzzle slightly open showing off viciously sharp teeth and eyes that had a silver tint to the black they were made from. Out of all of his possessions, this shirt was one of his most cherished ones. The Hokage had given the shirt to him as a birthday present. He had been walking around the city with him once and when they went through the market area, the shirt had immediately caught the boy's attention and the next second the little boy was right up next to the display, eyes wide looking at the dragon in wonder and amazement.

The Hokage had chuckled lightly at the boy's reaction and mentally made a note to get a set of those shirts for his next birthday. The boy had been completely flabbergasted when he had received the gift. His eyes wide almost to the point of hurting him as he looked over the assorted shirts, 12 shirts in all and each one having a dragon that was similar in the sense that it was intricate. Other than that, each shirt had a different coloured dragon weaving from either the neckline down and the head being in the stomach part, to having two dragons starting to weave from the hem of the shirt and the heads coming to end on the sleeves of the shirt. He had shed tears of happiness when he received the present and gave the Hokage a hug that rivaled the strength of a gorilla.

Today would be the first day he'd be wearing one. He had been so touched with the gift that he decided to only wear them on special occasions. Today was one of those special occasions. Today was going to be the Academy graduation exam. Today would be the day that he would graduate and become a Genin. An official ninja of Konoha, he had been working so hard to get here. Three years of hard struggling and hard work had really paid off for the young boy. When he had first entered the academy three years ago, he had had some problems with understanding some of the things the teachers were teaching. This was due to the fact that he hadn't had any parents, or anyone for that matter looking over him and teaching him the simple things about being a ninja and what they had to do and such.

But he hadn't given up. Out of all the teachers at the academy, there was one teacher, which treated Naruto better than the others. His name was Iruka. Iruka had lost his parents when the nine tailed fox had attacked Konoha, but he didn't let that loss cloud his mind. He saw the boy for who he was. Not a 'demon' or 'hell spawn' as he had heard the others teachers call him. No, Iruka saw the boy for who he really was, just a little boy who was saving the whole country probably by just being alive and having the will to continue. Because of his lack of prejudice, Iruka had taken it upon himself to give Naruto extra help and explaining things to him during recess and after school at times. The two had grown close to each other, almost to the point where Naruto saw Iruka as a bigger brother.

Thanks to the extra help Iruka gave him, Naruto was excelling in every subject, except for maybe the book work ones, and some problems that Naruto had with some of the simple ninjutsu the academy taught. Instead of the low, barely passing grades Naruto was getting when he first entered the academy, he was now near the top of his class, rivalling the ever brooding Uchiha Sasuke. Over the years at the academy, Naruto had grown to hate the Uchiha's attitude towards life. He sympathized with him on the reality that both were in a sense, alone in the world, but where he hadn't complained and made the best out of it, the Uchiha seemed adamant about brooding about his life every second he got. Because of this, Naruto didn't outright hate the Uchiha, just didn't get along with him that well.

Naruto slightly scowled when he thought of the Uchiha but quickly brushed him off as nothing more than an annoyance before making his way to his kitchen/living.

His apartment was very small, only being between 200 to 250 square feet, but it was a good size for him, he wasn't that concerned with the size. It did what it was supposed to do, keep him safe from the outside world when he slept and he was glad that it had been doing so for a while now.

Making himself a quick breakfast which consisted of a few slices of French toast, a big glass of milk, he went back to his room and strapped on his kunai and shuriken holsters. Attaching his utility pouch to the back of his pants, he looked himself in the mirror, adjusting the goggles on his forehead; he made his way to the front door. Locking it behind him, he jumped onto the roof of the low, 2 story building next to the apartment complex he lived in, and proceeded to jump from building to building making his way to the forest near his place. Making his way to a clearing, deep in the thick forest, Naruto started on some warm up exercises before running a few laps around the clearing to get his blood running.

He had been doing this for the past year and a half, and it had paid off greatly. Starting with some of the basic forms of the Taijutsu style they taught at the academy, he worked on speeding up his movement, as well as working on become more fluid with the techniques. After about 15 minutes of this, he started to work on his own style. It was a mix between the basics that the academy taught and martial arts he had seen on T.V. When he had first saw the intricate attacks and the fluidity of the forms, he was instantly inspired to combine the intricacy and the fluidity, with the academy's style and had come up with a brand new style, all his own. The main purpose of this style was to counter each and every attack your opponent threw at you and make openings for an attack. Each of your counters and attacks would put the person in the perfect position to strike again and in succession. He had tested it out against Iruka-sensei in a one on one match after school in the same clearing.

The results were least to say, very impressive. His movement was fluid, yet sudden at the same time. Iruka, deciding to use only the standard Academy Taijutsu against Naruto had learned that the hard way. Each counter Naruto made would push Iruka to dodge a sudden strike from him and push him back little by little until he was back up against a tree where he had soundly admitted defeat before he got injured. When he was asked where he had learned that style, he had simply replied, "I made it myself, so what do you think?" Iruka was like a fish out of water at the realization that the style that had just been used by a mere academy student had pushed him into submission so quickly and easily had been created by said Genin. After congratulation him, Iruka had offered to treat him to dinner which the boy happily agreed to. During the meal, Iruka had asked him what the name of the fighting style was and Naruto answered saying he hadn't thought up of a name for it yet.

Finishing up his training, Naruto realized he was sweating and breathing hard. It had been a good workout and he had gotten much faster with the fighting style. He wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his jacket and looked up at the sky to see it had grown to a dark blue instead of the black which signalled night. Smiling, he jumped onto the branch of a small tree and proceeded to jump to a higher branch. When the branches began to grow thin, he jumped to the neighbouring tree that was taller and proceeded to climb up higher until he reached the top. This tree was the tallest in the clearing and gave him an unobstructed view of the sunrise.

After the sun had risen, Naruto decided it was time to practice his ninjutsu, so he climbed back down to the clearing and started to work on the one jutsu he had been having problems with since he had first been taught it. It was the bunshin jutsu. No matter how hard he tried, no matter how much time he spent, he'd always end up with a sickly looking clone that would prove more fatal than helpful. He began with the seals and when he was finished moulding his chakra, he put his full concentration into the jutsu. A plume of smoke appeared around him and when it dissipated, Naruto was standing in between what looked like two dolls made of rubber. He cursed and dispelled the failed attempts and restarted. He kept this up for the next 40 minutes and with zero results, he resigned to his fate and fell back on his bottom letting out a sigh of disappointment.

He realized that he had nearly exhausted his chakra and cursed himself for getting distracted enough to come to such a state. Oh well, wasn't like he was going to be able to pass the bunshin test anyway. Getting up, he quickly made his way back to his apartment and decided to take a shower. He cursed when he realized that he had gotten his dragon shirt all sweaty. Taking his clothes off, he put them in the laundry basket and made his way into the shower for a quick wash and then was out again, dressed in his usual orange jumpsuit, this time wearing a dark blue shirt with a silver dragon on it. This dragon started from the left sleeve and wove its way around the shirt on the front and back and came to stop with the head at the stomach of the shirt, the mouth open and white teeth being shown, with red eyes that had small flames in them. He looked at his watch and his eyes widened when he realized that he would be late for class if he didn't leave immediately. Rushing to get his equipment back on, he ran into the kitchen part of the apartment and grabbed the two slices of French toast that were left and stuffed them into his mouth before zipping to the front door. Putting on his black ninja sandals, he was out the door in a heartbeat and jumping over rooftops, pushing himself to make it on time.

He made it to the academy doors with 3 minutes to spare and stopped for a second to catch his breath before walking into the building and making his way to Iruka's classroom. Coming to the door, he halted for a second, looking out towards a window and looked himself over. His hair was still wet from his shower, making it hang down instead of standing up pointy like it usually was. He himself liked this style better than the pointy spikes but his hair seemed to disagree. Shaking himself to get rid of the little bit of nervousness that set into his stomach, he took a deep breath and stepped into the class.

Stepping into the classroom, Naruto noticed that everyone was there, all except for the teacher it seemed. He looked around class and noticed that a good portion of the class was looking at him. He felt a little apprehensive and swept his gaze across the class looking at all the students. He saw looks of surprise, confusion, some were of awe, and he swore he saw a few girls blush when he looked at them. His confusion at the sudden attention was swiftly turned to nervousness when he met the gaze of a dark blue haired girl. 'Hinata…' he thought as he looked intently at her and let a smile slip across his face when he saw her blush a bright red before bowing her head and staring intently at the top of the desk. His musing however was interrupted when he heard the sound of pounding feet and turned in time to see a pink haired girl and another blonde try to get through the door frame at the same time.

The pink haired girl, Haruno Sakura, was the smartest person in their class. Her book smarts were the highest of all the students and she was pretty good in appearance as well. The blonde girl was Yamanaka Ino. She wasn't famous for being smart, but did however have a unique ability which let her enter the mind of others and control their body. When he had first learned of this, he was slightly scared to be near her and tried to avoid her when he could, that was during his first year here. Later he discovered that her unique trait was actually very impressive if put to practical use. Even so, he'd rather not have to deal with people that had the power to control his body.

The two were infamous for their continuing rivalry over the ever stoic Uchiha. That was another thing that irritated Naruto. Sasuke had girls going after him at every given moment of his school life and yet he ignored them. Naruto was just confused as to how someone who had almost all the girl population in the vicinity after him hadn't gotten himself a girlfriend yet. He knew it would help keep the other girls away; apparently it seemed that the boy couldn't think of something that simple as a solution. Naruto just sighed and decided to leave the boy to his torture. Looking around for an empty chair, he saw an empty seat next to the ever shy Hyuuga and smiled as he moved towards her.

Pulling the chair out, he sat down next to the blue haired girl and smiled warmly at her when she looked up to see who had sat down. He saw her blush a bright red and duck her head back down. He raised an eyebrow at her reaction, being used to this now. He had noticed this happening with her whenever he was around. Every time she would blush and bow her head down and then start to poke her fingers together. He found the finger poking kind of cute, and the blush only added to it. He also noticed that she would always stutter around him but when talking to others, she would be just fine. When he first realized this, he thought that she was afraid of him but that had been washed away because he knew that if someone was afraid of someone, they'd most likely not be blushing, instead they'd be going pale.

It had been like that for the first 5 months with her always blushing, stuttering, poking, and bowing her head whenever it came to him and he had been up late into the night at times trying to sort out her actions into a logical answer. He had been grateful for the fact that she wasn't one of the girls that always swooned over the Uchiha survivor. She was nice to him and would always smile at him, before ducking her head and poking her fingers together. They had become friends over time and it was because of her help during lunch and recesses that he learnt how to control his chakra better which allowed him to do most of the jutsu they were being taught in their last year at the academy. He had come to the realization that he liked the girl like a close friend. He wasn't sure whether it was really more or not, but he did know that if asked, he would do all he could to help her and wouldn't hesitate to do more.

Shaking his head, he looked back at Hinata and noticed that she was still poking her fingers with her head bowed, This is what it was always like and it was going to stay like that unless he did something about it. The thing about Hinata was that she would always be shy and timid when there wasn't anything to do, but during the times they had actually talked, she hadn't blushed or been shy. Only when a long pause would come would she revert back to the timid girl that he first saw. Realizing that Iruka wasn't going to be here for a little while, Naruto decided to pass the time with a conversation or two.

"Hey Hinata, how do you think you'll do in the exam?" a simple question he mused. 'Something to get her to talk is good enough for now' he thought to himself, looking at the Hyuuga, waiting for her response.

"Oh…I t-think I'll do o-ok, how a-about you N-Naruto-kun?"

"I'm pretty confident I'll do well. After All, I am going to become one of the strongest ninja out there." He said proudly, puffing his chest out a bit to show a little bit of manliness. He heard her giggle at his response and smiled at her.

"That's n-nice, I'm sure you'll s-succeed N-Naruto-kun" He blushed lightly at the indirect praise from the girl. He smiled warmly down at her and saw her blush a little before she smiled back at him. He grinned was about to say that she would do great to when he was interrupted by none other than Iruka walking in, a hush falling over the students as they got back into their seats.

"Good morning everyone, hope you all had a restful night. Now, I'm sure you all are wondering what the exam is going to consist of, so here is what we'll be grading you on." He turned to the board and picked up a piece of chalk before swiftly writing down while he spoke.

"The first part will consist of a written test, the second part will be on Taijutsu and the last part will be on Ninjutsu, specifically the bunshin jutsu." Right as he said that, everyone heard a loud 'thud' of something hitting wood and a gasp. They all turned to see Naruto with his head down on the desk, continuously pounding it on the wooden surface. The gasp had come from Hinata, her being startled at the sound and seeing Naruto pounding his head on the desk. Iruka sighed as he made his way up towards Naruto's desk and lightly slapped him in the back of the head.

"Ow! What the heck?" Naruto looked up to see none other than Iruka standing there next to his desk with a smirk on his face.

"Now Naruto, before I say anything else, is there something bothering you?" the teacher asked.

The boy looked over the desk he was banging his head on and over to the side to see Hinata with her hands in front of her mouth and her eyes slightly wide looking at him in shock. He shook his head like a dog would and then looked back at Iruka once his brain stopped spinning and grinned up at the Chunin teacher.

"No Iruka-sensei. Just needed to clear up some of my thoughts" Iruka looked down at him with a raised eyebrow and just sighed before walking back to the front of the class. He turned around when he reached his desk and picked up a pile of papers before walking down the rows, placing the test face down in front of each student.

"Ok, no one turn the paper over until I say so." When he handed the last piece of paper out, he walked back to the front looking at the kids, making sure they followed the rules. In the ninja world, discipline was more important than the lords. A ninja without discipline only spelled trouble and trouble often led to headaches. Something he had become accustomed to thanks to the girls awakening to their more 'mature' side if he had to phrase it politely. Turning around when he reached the front once again he assessed the class in the classroom one last time.

"You have exactly 1 hour to finish this test. After which we will begin the Taijutsu test outside in the field. Alright everyone, good luck. You may begin"

The second Iruka said begin, Naruto had almost ripped his paper flipping it over. He quickly looked over the test paper, reading every question, understanding the concepts before he started answering. He was halfway through the paper when he thought of taking a small break. Looking up at the clock, he noticed that only 15 minutes had passed. He was more than surprised at the speed he was finishing the questions at. Deciding to skip the break and just finishing it, Naruto sped through the rest of the test with little difficulty. The last question had stopped him for a bit, but even that didn't stop him from putting his all into the question and he was quickly finished with the test. Deciding it was safe to say that he had answered all the questions to the best of his ability, he started to look over the test again, just in case there were any changes he could make. He had learned that making hasty decisions only led to pain. That lesson he had been taught by Iruka himself.

During one of their after school sessions, Naruto had asked the teacher to help him with his Taijutsu and the Chunin was more than happy to agree. He had started off fighting like he normally would have, running at his opponent head on. Iruka noticed this and mentally sighed at the boy's lack of tact. Waiting till the last moment, Iruka gently stepped to the side, letting Naruto's punch miss him and he gently tapped the boy in the back of his head with his elbow, signalling the end of the round.

Naruto had gotten ready instantly and was on his teacher again, same tactic as before, running at him head on. Finally, Iruka thought that this was getting nowhere and said they should take a break. During the break, Naruto had asked him what he was doing wrong and Iruka told him straight up and to the point that he was being too rash, always rushing into things and not thinking things through. Naruto had at first argued, but agreed to try and take things little slower. To the boy's and the teacher's surprise, Naruto had held him off for a good 5 minutes before being hit in the back, signalling the end of that round.

Naruto finished checking his test and smiled as the memory passed through his head. Looking up at the clock, he realized that only 35 minutes had passed. He was now very impressed at this. All the questions were answered correctly and he was finished with his test. Not to mention he now had 20 minutes to himself. He turned his head slightly to the left and looked at Hinata through his peripheral vision and saw that she wasn't having and difficulty with the test either. At the speed she was going at, she'd be finished with about eight minutes to spare. Smiling lightly, he was about to lay his head down for a nap when nature decided to make its call known, with a fierceness to match.

Naruto slowly raised his hand, and waited for Iruka to notice him. When he did notice, he let out a relief that it didn't take long. Only 10 seconds, 10 long seconds in his opinion. 'Maybe I shouldn't have had that third glass of milk before leaving' He saw Iruka raise an eyebrow at him and he grinned sheepishly at the man.

"Yes, what is it Naruto?" The brown haired man asked his pupil.

"Heh, umm…may I go to the washroom?" he asked, hoping that he'd be able to go. He didn't know how much longer he could hold it in.

"Naruto, you know you can't leave the classroom when a test is in order, can you hold it?" the teacher asked. His response was a very swift shaking of the boy's head saying he really had to go.

"Fine, but I'm going to have to take your test then, and you won't be able to get it back" The teacher said a little sad, knowing that he probably didn't finish even half of the test. That would leave him with a fail in the first part. He was however completely knocked off his feet at the boy's response.

"It's OK Iruka-sensei, I'm finished." Naruto happily replied, getting out of his chair with his paper in hand.

His response was heard by everyone in the class and the second people understood what he said, 28 shouts of 'what!?' echoed throughout the classroom. Hinata being the only one, who didn't shout, only stared at the young boy with wide eyes. Naruto walked up to the teacher, scratching the back of his head with his free hand and handed the test to Iruka once he reached his desk. He noticed that his teacher was completely stupefied at the speed he finished the test. He himself was a little more than startled himself. He turned around and looked at the class that was still looking at him like he had grown a second head and a pair of wings. He smiled at them shyly and turned his gaze to Hinata to gauge her reaction. He saw the same confusion and shock in her eyes as well and smiled brightly at her. She didn't miss it and blushed brightly before letting out a small 'Eep', ducking her head down and started pushing her fingers together.

Turning back to his teacher, he looked at his sensei looking over his paper and asked "Can I go to the washroom now sensei? I really need to go."

Iruka was still a little flabbergasted at the boy finishing the test in record time. The speed at which he had finished was the same speed as someone who was a Chunin with a slightly above average understanding of the questions. When he heard the boy ask the question once again, he dumbly nodded his head yes and continued to look over the test. The writing wasn't as messy as he had expected, so the boy wasn't rushed, but then how had he finished the test so quickly? He hadn't cheated, no that was impossible because he had kept his eye on all the students, using chakra to enhance his eyesight so he'd be able to see everything.

He hadn't seen the boy do anything suspicious, or abnormal. The only thing that could have been noticeable was the speed at which he flipped the paper, but that was normal since every other student flipped theirs over swiftly as well, maybe a bit slower but that wasn't anything to concern over. Looking over the boy's test, he was astounded at the answers. Each one was fully answered in ordered sentences and was answered correctly, and neatly! Neat wasn't a word that was usually used in conjunction with Naruto but it seemed there really wasn't anything that could have explained him completing the test so quickly, he decided it was all simple; the boy had worked hard for his knowledge which he was a witness to. He quickly looked up to see Naruto just about to reach for the knob on the door and acted quickly to congratulate his student on an exceptionally well done job.

"Naruto…" his name being called was enough to stop the boy and make him turn towards his teacher with a puzzled look.

"Yes Iruka-sensei?" he saw the smile work its way across his teachers face and couldn't help but let one of his own slowly start to slip into place as well.

"Great work Naruto." His grin completed its trail across his face and he showed it in full bloom at the compliment.

"Heh, it was nothing, I am going to be the strongest ninja ever, and maybe I'll become Hokage one day, who knows." The boy smiled back and then took his leave, making a bee line for the washrooms.

Hinata was blushing brightly as she continued to work on her test. Naruto's finishing of the test had aroused a lot of curiosity from the girl and the rest of the class too it seemed. 'How could have Naruto-kun finished the test so quickly? Even Sakura isn't done yet and she's supposed to be the smarted in here' the Hyuuga mused in her head as she finished up the question she was working on. It was a wonder how she had finished up to this point all on its own. This final test was much, much harder than the other's had been. Her mind drifted back to the smile the boy had given her and she couldn't help but blush even more at the feeling that erupted in her when her eyes met his and he smiled.

Her heart had sped up when their eyes had met and she was certain it was going to explode when he smiled at her. 'He smiled at me…he always smiles at me, but this time…it felt somewhat different. It was warm this time…more friendly…' her mind started to run thoughts through her head off all the times he had smiled at her in the past. They were all friendly ones, but it seemed that the one's he'd been giving her this past week had been warmer, more sincere towards her. She shook herself from those thoughts and concentrated on the test at hand. She didn't want to lose any time when her mind required all her concentration to be on the test at this time.

She was about to go back to the test and answer the next question, when she heard Iruka-sensei call out for Naruto. She turned her head so she could see the boy and controlled the urge to squeal in her chair. The face he made when he was confused was the cutest thing she had ever seen. Every time she saw it; it became more and more difficult to hold herself from just running and pinching his cheeks. Her thoughts were halted when she heard Iruka complimenting him on doing a great job and she melted at the smile she saw slip across his face. He looked truly happy at that moment. She giggled lightly at his declaration of becoming the strongest ninja ever, and maybe more. She turned back to her test and continued working at a faster, yet comfortable pace. She had already spent more than enough time with her mind wandering. She smiled as she thought about exactly who it had wandered off too and then blushed as the thoughts came back. Silently berating herself for having such a short attention span, she concentrated even more on her work, a small smile still present on her face no matter how hard she tried to hide it.

Six minutes after Naruto departure, he was back and sat down next to Hinata, much to the kunoichi's silent pleasure. He turned to her and she looked over at him as he smiled at her in that warm manner again. A blush blazed across her face and she quickly turned her head from him and bowed it down, hiding the blush from his view. She looked through her peripheral vision and saw his smile get even wider and her blush seemed to correspond as it increased in intensity. She looked intently at her test and noticed that she had made it about halfway through and smiled. 'Yes! I'll be able to finish with enough time to rest' she thought happily. Looking over at the blond sitting next to her, she was surprised to see his arms crossed and on the desk as his head rested on his forearms, his eyes closed and it seemed like he was sleeping. She lightly smiled at his peaceful expression, being one of the very few he showed to her.

She turned back to her test and continued working on it until she was finished which was a little more than 7 minutes before the one hour deadline. She smiled at her accomplishment, handing the finished test to Iruka. She turned back to Naruto expecting him to still be asleep. Only to her surprise, she saw him awake and looking right at her, a grin making its way on to his face as their eyes met.

She didn't know how long they were both staring at each other, but apparently, it was longer than she had expected it to be. The two were broken out of their little staring contest by the sound of Iruka's voice signalling that it was the end of the first part of the exam.

"Alright class, I'm going to come around and collect the tests. After I want all you too meet me outside in the training field. No funny business or I'll deduct marks from your final scores" His threat had the wanted reaction as all of the students immediately stiffened and nodded their heads yes.

Naruto was glad that the written part was over. It meant he didn't have to sit around and be bored for the rest of the day. Although, looking at Hinata as she concentrated on her test was, for some reason, not boring to him. Instead, he found himself wanting to do it more often than not. He was confused by these thoughts and would have mused on them more had it not been for Iruka's little threat that gave him shivers for a second. The older ninja was making sure no one did anything wrong today, more so than usual. 'Oh well, no skin off my nose' the blonde boy thought as he started to get up. Turning around after standing up, he looked back at Hinata and grinned down at her as she looked up at him.

"Come on Hinata, let's get good seats, so we won't be too far back or too close" the boy said energetically. The girl just blushed and nodded her head as she followed him out of the class room and into the hallway.

"So Hinata, how do you think you did on the test?" She was a little startled at his question but caught herself and replied.

"I t-think I did quite well, w-what about you N-Naruto-kun?" He looked back at her and she felt her cheeks heat up at the smile he was giving her.

"That's great Hinata. It was easy for me. I thought it would be much harder. Heh, I think the teachers are starting to slack" the boy replied grinning from ear to ear. She smiled at him and they continued in silence towards the field.

'No Naruto-kun, it's not that the teachers are slacking, you are becoming stronger' Hinata silently thought to herself with a smile as she looked over at the boy who was walking to her left with his smile on full force. She smiled lightly at his appearance and continued walking down the hallway and out the door to the back of school where they she saw their teacher, Iruka, waiting for them with a smile on his face.

"Alright everyone, I think it's safe to say that all of you passed the first part of the test. But that's no reason to celebrate just yet. For this test, we're going to have you do a physical evaluation on how fit you are and then a little target practice, then we'll have a little sparring session to see how well you can fight." Iruka looked down at all the kids and smiled. He saw nothing but determination in each of their eyes and he was proud to say that these were his students.

"Alright you guys, let's get the laps started, girls go first, then boys." As he said that, all the girls started to head towards the track.

Hinata was about to start walking towards the track when she felt a tap on her sholder. She quickly turned around to see Naruto standing, smiling at her with a light blush on his cheek. Her cheeks started to heat up at the closeness to the blonde boy. Sure they had been closer, almost on top of each other that one time when Naruto had challenged her to a tree climbing challenge, both falling down when the weight on a branch the two were on was too much for the poor thing.

"Show them what you're made of Hinata-chan" her blush got deeper at the endearment that he had added to her name. She had come to notice that he only used the endearment next to her name when he was being honest and sincere with whoever he was talking to. She smiled lightly up at him before nodding her head, not trusting her voice. She felt him place a hand on her shoulder and squeeze slightly before dropping it. She slowly made her way towards the track where the other girls were waiting for Iruka to start. When she reached the starting line, she got ready to run and looked back at the boys. Her eyes met with the cerulean blue hues of Naruto's and she saw him smile while giving her a thumb up. She felt a sudden rush of energy go through her body and she smiled back just before Iruka swiped the air with his arm, signalling the start of the second test.

Hinata wasn't sure how fast she was going; all she knew was that she had to give it her all. She wasn't aware of how far up ahead she was, or how far behind, all that mattered was going all out and showing Iruka, and by proxy, Naruto her best. Before she knew it, it was already over. She passed Iruka and the man signalled that she had finished her 5 laps. She walked off to the side to calm herself and catch her breath. Walking around a bit with her hands on her hips to help catch her breath, she looked over at Naruto and saw him looking at her with a wide smile and she blushed lightly. She looked down at the ground for a second and then looked back up to see the boy bounding up to her with a happy smile and a gleam in his eye. She wasn't sure what caused such a reaction from the boy but wasn't complaining.

"That was amazing Hinata-chan, I haven't seen anyone move that fast before. Who knew you were so fast!" he exclaimed loudly as he ran up to her.

"He's right Hinata. You finished your 5th lap while the other girls were still on their 4rd" Iruka said coming up from behind her. She smiled up at her teacher and then turned to Naruto and saw him smiling as wide as ever. The next thing she knew, she was in his arms as he hugged her. She stiffened at first but slowly relaxed and then promptly fainted at the contact with a content smile on her face.

"Huh?" Naruto said as he felt Hinata completely relax and then felt her entire bodyweight begin to push him down. He looked down at the girl to see her eyes were closed and a smile was on her face. He chuckled lightly as he realized that she had fainted. He mentally slapped himself for being so forward but couldn't help the smile that slipped across his face as he looked down at the girl in his arms. And just like that, she was coming back to consciousness and he smiled as he saw her eyes flutter open and then the usual blush spread across her cheeks.

Hinata was berating herself for fainting as her conscious returned to her and was acutely aware of the warmth that was surrounding her. The memory of what cause her to faint came back to her and she blushed as she felt Naruto's embrace around her. She felt his arms let go and she mentally yelled for him to not let her go. Unfortunately for her, he couldn't read her thoughts and let her go, but kept his hands on her shoulders. It wasn't as much contact as the embrace, but it was still some that she was happy for.

"You O.K Hinata? You kinda passed out there for a second." The concern in his voice for her was flattering and she couldn't help but blush before nodding her head yes and saying she was ok.

"Y-yeah, I'm O-O.K N-Naruto-kin" she replied her stutter back in full force.

Naruto mentally kicked himself for his brashness and the result of his actions.

'Heh seems I still have a bit of an impulsive side in me.' He was broken out of his revere by Iruka calling all the boys to the starting line while congratulating the girls on a job well done. He was about to walk off but was stopped by the hand on his arm. He looked down at Hinata after she pulled her hand back and smiled when he saw her poke her fingers together in that all too cute manner.

"Yes Hinata-chan?' he quietly asked, looking down at her with a smile on his face.

"A-Ano…D-Do your best, Naruto-kun" she timidly said to him, her head still bowed and her fingers pressing together even more firmly when she heard him say 'chan' after her name.

"Thanks Hinata-chan" he replied, smiling as she nodded her head in recognition to his thanks. He quickly made his way over to the starting line where he found himself an open spot, to his dismay, right next to the one and only Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto didn't show his irritation and kept his mind concentrated on showing the class just what Hinata had said, his best. He looked over at Iruka and flexed all his muscles as he saw the muscles in the man's arms tighten. The second his arm cut the air, Naruto was off like a cheetah. Well to him it was like a cheetah. To the rest of the class, it was like a bullet.

Naruto wasn't going to hold back this time. He'd show them his best. He kept his pace up for 2 and a half laps, putting him well in front of the other students. Apparently his continuous training in the woods and his habit of pushing himself beyond his limits had paid in return as he was only slightly winded at the end of the 5 laps. Walking off the track to get out of the way of the others, Naruto looked up and saw the other boys just beginning to cross the finish line. First one obviously being Sasuke, followed closely by Kiba, then a few places later Shino crossed the line with Shikamaru right behind him. The last person to cross the line was, not surprisingly, Chouji but no one was concerned about that. He being an Akimichi gave more than enough reason to let him off the hook.

Naruto bowed his head down and rested his hands on his knees as he stood trying to catch his breath. He was surprised however when he felt another body push against him and arms wrap around his neck as he was engulfed in a hug. He looked at the person who hugged him to be mildly surprised to find that it was Hinata and he could tell that she was smiling, and blushing very brightly as well.

"That was incredible Naruto-kun. You were so fast, we barely knew before it was over." before she happily tightened her embrace. Naruto was first shocked at her out of character action. But he wasn't one to complain as he returned her embrace and found himself blushing when he caught Iruka smiling while looking at the two. He was startled out of his thoughts however when he heard a distinct 'Eep' coming from his chest and looked down to see, once again, a knocked out Hinata with another smile on her face. He laughed out loud at that and smiled down at her, as he slowly sat her down on the ground, making sure as to not allow any sudden movements or impacts to happen. He sat down next to her and rested her against his left shoulder as he held her up with his left arm around her back. 2 minutes later, she was coming to and when she realized her position, blushed even more.

When Naruto saw her come too, he moved his arm away and got up, helping her up as well, they both made their way towards their teacher as the boys and girls gathered around him, waiting anxiously for the next test to begin.

When Iruka was sure everyone was there and listening, he informed them of the next test.

"Alright everyone, that was excellent. Now the next test is going to be the accuracy test. You'll be given 8 kunai or shuriken, or a mixture of both, you choose, and you will have to hit at least 4 of the targets on the dummy there." He pointed towards a wooden dummy that was around 75 feet from their current position. The students noticed that each of the targets was over an area where a vital organ would be on a real human. Meaning each hit would be fatal to an actual person.

"Ok everyone, I'll call out your name and you come up, tell me what you would like to use and then go ahead with the test." Iruka explained as he walked next to 2 boxes. One filled with kunai while the other was filled with shuriken. Naruto wasn't paying much attention to most of the kids that were coming up and throwing the weapons at the dummy. He was more concentrated on keeping himself calm and collected so he wouldn't screw up his chances at getting a perfect score. He hadn't practiced throwing kunai and shuriken until his arms hurt almost every other night for nothing.

"Hyuuga Hinata, you're up next" He heard Iruka say and turned to his right, where Hinata was standing next to him.

"Good luck" he softly said to her as she nodded her head and went to the line which marked 75 feet from the target. Activating her Byakugan, Hinata let her mind and body relax before taking the offered shuriken she had chosen. Holding 4 shuriken in each hand, grasping them in between her fingers, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the target with her Byakugan, coming up with the amount of power she'd have to use to have the shuriken go through the air, yet still have enough accuracy. When she came to a decision, in the blink of an eye, she had her arms extended forward, the shuriken already flying through the air. She held her breath as she saw the shuriken sail through the air at high speeds, spinning with such speed that they looked more like discs of death rather than spinning stars. Hinata squeezed her eyes shut after cutting the chakra to her Byakugan, expecting herself to fail the test. She imagined all the shuriken missing the dummy, all landing right in front of it. The image was shattered as suddenly Naruto appeared in her mind's eye with his smile saying 'Good luck' to her. She felt confidence reign in her and opened her eyes while she straightened herself and turned from the dummy without even looking weather she hit the dummy or not and made her way towards Naruto with a confident smile.

She didn't need to know if she hit the dummy or not. Naruto's smile was more than enough. She was however surprised when she heard him.

"I'm proud of you Hinata." She felt a sense of warmth go through her whole body and she felt happier than she had ever before. 'He's proud of me…oh god, I think I'm going to faint' and that's exactly what she did. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she was out like a light. Before she could fall, Naruto caught her and lay her down on the grass, smiling at her peaceful expression for the third time that day.

Iruka was left very impressed with his student. He didn't think Hinata had that much power. There no less than 90 feet from the shooting line, lay the dummy that everyone was supposed to shoot at. Only problem was that it now lay without a stand. Hinata had apparently put a lot of power behind her throw because just as all eight shuriken hit their targets, the force of the first 4 impacts made the wooden stand holding the dummy up crack. The last 4 impacts where the deciding factor and broke the stand making the dummy roll an extra 15 feet before stopping near the fence at the other side. He turned his head back, expecting to see his student just as shocked as him, only he saw her walking away from the shooting line towards Naruto with a happy expression on her face.

After a couple of minutes, they had a new dummy placed at the 75 feet line and were ready to continue with the test. Shortly after the test was back in action, Hinata had woken up and was now sitting next to Naruto on the grass watching the other students. Hinata was watching the students. Naruto however was watching Hinata watch the other students.

'What is it about her...what is it about her that drays me to her like this? God dang it! Why can't anything be simple when it comes to me?'

"Uchiha Sasuke, You're up." Iruka called and Naruto's head turned so fast, he was sure he was going to get whiplash. He watched as the brooding boy stood up at the line and took 4 kunai and 4 shuriken. Naruto snickered loud enough for the boy to hear. To his dismay though, the 'Sasuke fan-club' had also heard the snicker and were ready to assault the perpetrator. That is until they saw that Hinata was sitting next to him and decided they would get him when the girl was a ways away. Fear of hurting the Hyuuga and then facing the wrath of her father being more than a little deterrent for their anger.

Naruto was silently glad that Hinata was sitting next to him. He felt the death that was radiating off the group of girls and silently prayed that he wouldn't get hurt. His attention was brought back to earth when he saw Sasuke get ready to throw the projectiles. He could tell the stance was done almost all on instinct. The boy had talent, that he would admit, talent yes, but it was directed towards the wrong purpose. He saw the boy throw the weapons and in the blink of an eye, the 4 kunai and 4 shuriken were embedded into the dummy in all the targets giving the boy a perfect score.

Naruto saw the look the boy gave him when he turned around before sitting off to the side, away from the rest of the class, the girls looking at him with hearts in their eyes as the boy sat down.

"Alright, and last, but certainly not least, we have Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto heard Iruka call out and smiled as he heard Hinata say 'good luck' before she started pushing her fingers together. Naruto walked up to the shooting line and smiled at Iruka.

"8 kunai, Iruka sensei" he said and thanked the teacher as he took the aforementioned knives and clutched them much in the same manner as Hinata had her shuriken, the handles of the kunai being held in between his fingers. He concentrated on the dummy and threw the kunai in his left hand first. The 4 knives struck the dummy dead bulls-eye and he grinned before letting the other knives in his right hand fly as well. 3 of the knives hit the remaining bulls-eye and one pierced the target 2 rings outside the red dot in the center. He was pleased with his aim. He hadn't expected to get 7 perfect hits but wasn't about to complain either. Smiling at his teacher, he turned around and grinned at the stunned faces of the other students. He looked over at Sasuke and saw the boy scowling slightly and his grin widened at knowing that he had irked him a bit at his unexpected skill. Throwing kunai was one of his week points. He was better at throwing shuriken, always managing to hit target, where as with Kunai, he always had the disadvantage at not being strong enough to actually throw them with much force. He could already feel the tell tale of a cramp coming up due to his throw. He had put a lot of force behind them and it was coming at him now. He walked back to Hinata and smiled down at her as she congratulated him.

"Alright class, good work. Now it's time for the Taijutsu test. It's going to be done like this. I'll call the name of two students and they are going to come up here where they will have a 2 minute spar. After the two minutes, we'll do the next pair and so on until everyone is done." All the students nodded and were a bit nervous concerning who they were going to have to face. Iruka silently laughed at the nervousness the students were experiencing. Oh how he loved scaring these kids from time to time. It was his silent entertainment to help keep his life a little lively. After thinking that they had waited long enough, he started calling out the students in pairs and the first match was soon underway.

Naruto was sitting beside Hinata and both were looking as the students all fought in twos. Once again, Hinata was looking at the students and Naruto was gazing at her, or more specifically, her pale eyes. He couldn't explain it but whenever he looked at them, a sense of peace would wash over him. It was different from the peace he felt when he was surrounded by the scent of the forest. No, this peace was one that filled him with slight warmth. He was confused as to how he could feel such a thing from just looking at her, but then again, his life had been filled with a lot of mysteries. All of which he had planned on solving some time or another. Before long, he heard Iruka call out his name and his opponents and he scowled slightly as he realized who it was.

"Alright, next up is Sasuke and Naruto" Naruto looked up at the other boy and he was sure the boys frown had somehow gotten deeper. Standing up, he looked down at the blushing girl next to him and smiled before walking off towards their teacher.

Naruto stood to Iruka's right as Sasuke came up and stood to the older man's right, both looking at each other with neutral faces.

"Alright, here are the rules, no jutsu and no chakra, just pure Taijutsu alright?" getting a nod from the two boys, he led them a little way's away from the other students to where the previous one's had fought and put his hands up. Seeing the two steps away from each other and leaving about 5 meters of space in between, he brought his hands down signalling the start of the fight.

"Begin!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey everyone. I know what you're all thinking, it can't be, already? OH but it is. I have successfully edited this chapter as well. Took a bit longer than the last one, but I got through it in about three hours. I was surprised that in this chapter, there wasn't much that I needed to change, just add in a bit here, change stuff there. A few spelling errors and a couple grammatical corrections later and BHAM! We've got a perfect (in my opinion) chapter two for this thing. You guys are probably wondering why I'm updating them at night. Well, that's because I've got College in the morning. Despite me being a full time College Computer Animation student now, It's this that I'm doing once I come home. Once I'm done Re-visiting all the chapters, and fix up chapter four so that it meets my 10 000 word minimum requirment, I'll get right on to the fifth chapter. You'll love what I've gotten down for that one. Keep your eyes open for chapter three and enjoy Beauty is in the Eye - chapter 2 Revised.**

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**Chapter 2: Chapter 2**

**Beauty is in the Eye…**

Chapter 2

"Begin!"

At the sound of Iruka's voice, Naruto sped forward heading straight for Sasuke, the other boy doing likewise. Right as Naruto was about to reach Sasuke, he saw the boy pull his right arm back, aiming for a punch to his face. Naruto used this time to quickly slow himself down and dropped down, before sweeping his right leg out, aiming to kick his feet out from under him. Sasuke apparently saw this as he jumped up high and smirked as he avoided the sweep.

Right as Sasuke jumped up to avoid his sweep kick; Naruto was already set to attack once again. Using the momentum from his kick, he turned himself, bringing his left leg up and placing his hands down simultaneously changing his position so he was now in a hand-stand. Naruto quickly bent his arms at the elbows and bent his legs in as well. In one sudden burst, he pushed upward with his arms using all his strength and kicked his legs out. The result was instantaneous as the push from his arms had him airborne and the pull from his kick gave him more air, bringing him closer to the now descending Uchiha.

Right when Sasuke had jumped up high over the boys kick, he was readying himself to deliver a heavy kick as he started to fall downwards. He was utterly surprised as he saw the orange clad boy spin and go into a hand stand only to launch himself up at him. His surprise cost him as he fell down right into the boys rising feet which caught him in the stomach. His downward momentum and the boys upward thrust making the kick more painful that it would originally have been.

As the two started to fall, Naruto pulled his legs quickly and used the momentum to spin himself, allowing him to land on his feet. The same couldn't be said for the other boy as he fell on his side, clutching his stomach as he coughed up a little bit of blood. Naruto looked down at the boy with a little pity knowing he would be in some serious pain for a while. He had practiced this move in his training clearing over and over and over again. He hadn't used it on anyone until now, only using it on branches that grew at a low height on trees before now.

He would practice it on a low branch until he was sure he had enough power to push himself up high enough to hit the branch. Then working on power and training on it until the branch he'd be kicking would break from the force. He didn't know how much power he had generated in the kick, only knew that from the height the Uchiha had jumped up to, he'd need to give it his all to reach him, and his all was exactly what he had put into the kick.

He was brought out of his thoughts as he saw Sasuke try to get up, only to hold his stomach again and grunt from the pain and cough up some more blood mixed with some spittle. He wasn't sure what to do now, but hoped that he wouldn't get into too much trouble. He saw the boy finally stand up again, left arm wrapped around his stomach, while his right was clenched in a fist as he was slightly bent over, showing that he was still in pain from the kick he received.

Naruto was caught off guard when the boy suddenly sprinted towards him, his left arm still wrapped around his mid section. He saw the boy bend down, getting ready to jump and that was when Naruto made his first mistake. He had thought that Sasuke would jump and try to get him again, so naturally, he decided to get low and maybe jump up to meet him in the air, but to the blonde's surprise, the black haired boy didn't jump, instead he lightly hopped and landed on his back, still traveling at him, while skidding on the ground with his left leg held up in a kicking fashion.

Naruto just caught himself before he jumped and tried to jump over the skidding boy. He almost made it over, only to be caught in his right shin by the boys kick and ended up losing his balance, falling to his left and made it out of the way of the fist that almost hit him in the face as he fell. Naruto quickly got up from falling and saw the other boy ready as well a little more than a few feet away. He suddenly smirked as an idea came to him and then grinned at the Uchiha before running towards him with all the speed he could muster.

Sasuke was prepared for the charge however; he wasn't prepared for the speed at which Naruto had run at him with. The boy blurred from his vision for a second and the next thing he knew, Naruto was no more than a few inches from him, the annoying grin still on his face.

Before Sasuke could react, Naruto spun to the left, bringing his left hand towards the boy's face in a backhanded fist. The punch was blocked by Sasuke holding up his left arm, the forearm contacting with Naruto's knuckles. Naruto quickly opened his left hand and grabbed the boys forearm, jerking him forward and using him as a pivot point, as he spun to the right so his back was facing the boy. Before Sasuke could do anything or retaliate, Naruto brought his right arm up and bent it at the elbow, thrusting it backwards and into the other boy's mid-section again, in exactly the same spot as before where he had previously kicked the boy.

Sasuke felt that pain rock his whole body this time. It was so sudden, and he hadn't been expecting the boy to do such a manoeuvre. He gasped as his breath left him for the second time in the last minute and a half and clutched his stomach with his right hand as he fell to one knee coughing up some more blood.

"Alright, that's enough. Good work! Both of you" Naruto quickly released Sasuke's forearm and looked down at the boy. He felt guilty for hurting the brooder as much as he had and looked up at his teacher, expecting to see a glare or a look that promised punishment but was shocked when he saw pride in his teacher's eyes. He smiled sheepishly and looked to the side instantly catching a pair of pale eyes with his gaze and smiled towards the blue haired girl. Naruto blushed lightly and scratched the back of his head before looking back down at Sasuke when he heard him grunt. Not noticing the hazel eyes watching him intently behind the blue haired girl.

"Hey, good match Sasuke" the blonde said as he offered a hand to the still kneeling boy.

He heard a grunt before he felt a stinging on the back of his hand. His eyes widened when he realized that the Uchiha had just slapped his hand away and looked back down at the boy as he slowly got up, still holding his stomach. Naruto scowled at the boy's attitude and decided to give him a piece of his mind but was stopped as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. Looking up he saw Iruka sensei standing next to him, looking at the now standing boy, a little blood on the side of his mouth.

"Yes, good job both of you. I'm very impressed with you two." He looked back at the black haired boy and scowled before turning around and heading back to his seat, smiling as he turned towards the Hyuuga heiress when he caught her looking at him.

As Naruto made his way over to the girl, he was stopped however by a tap on his shoulder. He turned his head to look at who it was and was surprised to see that it was Sakura. Naruto smiled at her in welcoming, which is before it turned into a grimace of pain as the pink haired girl punched him in the stomach and then proceeded to scream at him about hurting her so called 'love'. Before the girl could do some serious damage with the kick she was readying, she was stopped by the teacher.

"That's enough Sakura! I'll see you after class, everyone else into the classroom immediately!" Iruka bellowed as he looked at the blonde boy who was holding his stomach with a grimace on his face lying on the ground on his side. Before he could go to check on the boy, he saw the blue haired girl run up to the fallen boy and smiled before turning to the Uchiha boy. The boy had taken two painful hits in the same spot and needed his attention right now. Naruto would be ok for now.

Hinata was surprised was to say the least. She was amazed at the speed which Naruto had beaten Sasuke who was named the rookie of the year. She smiled at him as he looked up towards their teacher and then blushed before ducking her head and started pushing her fingers together when her gaze met his. She wasn't paying attention to much until she heard Iruka's voice boom throughout the field and looked up a little startled before her expression turned to one of fear as she saw Naruto on the ground in what looked like a fatal position.

Her worry of him over riding her other emotions, she quickly got up and ran to the fallen boy, kneeling next to him and quickly picking him up so that her right arm was holding his head up and her left hand was resting on his chest.

"Naruto-kun? Are you alright?" she asked him; as she looked at the expression of pain on his face subside slightly.

"Hinata…? Cough yeah I'm ok, I think…" he coughed once more before smiling slightly up to her. He tried to get up but failed as the pain in his stomach pulsed from his actions and he found himself falling back, his head landing in the Hyuuga girl's lap. He looked up at the girl with an apologetic gaze and was slightly surprised at the intense blush that was adorning her features.

"Hinata-chan? You ok?" he looked up at the girl, his own pain forgotten for the time being. He reached up with his right hand and placed the back of it next to her cheek.

"You look really, really red. Do you have a fever?" he questioned, innocent to what exactly was happening to the little girl.

Hinata was startled when the boy fell back and instead of his head landing on the ground like she expected it to, it landed right on her lap and her shyness came back to her with a ferocious blush. She swooned for a moment, the sound of her heart thumping in her ears as the blood rushed to her cheeks. She heard his question and was trying to find her voice so she could answer him but was frozen still when he placed the back of his hand next to her cheek. She didn't hear what he said, only felt his hand touch her cheek. Her heart started beating faster and faster and each beat caused more and more red to appear on her cheeks.

'Naruto-kun's hands are so soft' was her last thought as she passed out in the position she was sitting in. Her head bowing down more than it usually did as her hands, which were clutched to her chest just a second ago fell, one landing to her side as the right one landed on Naruto's chest.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the girl's odd reaction to his question but soon realized she had fallen unconscious. He sighed to himself, promising to at least try and get rid of her habit of fainting around him. 3 years of being around him and she still fainted around him for some odd reason. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the comfortable position he was in and was almost about to fall asleep before he remembered they were still in the middle of an exam and if they didn't hurry, they'd be in trouble for being late to the last part of the exam.

Sitting himself up, he looked back at the sill passed out girl and tried to wake her up. Putting his right hand on her shoulder, he lightly shook it in hopes of having the girl wake up. To his dismay, she started to fall back and he quickly caught her before she hit the ground. Mental cursing himself for the situation he was now stuck in, he decided to take matters into his own hands, literally. Turning himself, still keeping his right hand on her shoulder to keep her steady, he knelt down next to her and hooked his left arm under her legs, behind the knees and wrapped his right arm around her shoulder. He pulled her gently into his lap and then proceeded to light himself up, carrying Hinata bridal style towards their classroom.

Naruto wasn't having any trouble carrying her, but his arms still protested slightly from the extra effort they had to put in to keep the girl from falling. Naruto was by no means strong when it came to brute force. His muscles were more for speed rather than power. He looked down the blue haired girl, her head now resting on his chest as a peaceful expression was present on her face.

'She looks so peaceful and beautiful' he blushed as he thought about the girl in such a manner. He hadn't thought it on purpose, it just happened. Shaking his head slightly, he continued his way, having a little trouble opening the door that lead into the hallway carrying the girl.

Walking down the hallway, he felt a tingling sensation on his chest and looked down only to see Hinata snuggle into his chest and then sighing blissfully before relaxing in his arms once again. His confusion soon gave way to embarrassment and he continued towards their classroom with a blush adorning his whiskered cheeks. He was a way's away from their classroom and he cursed not taking the shorter route. He wasn't necessarily complaining, but the girl in his arms kept nuzzling his chest and it wasn't helping with the fact that every time she did that, he'd feel his legs get a bit weaker and almost bulking under him at one point.

He turned left around another corner and mentally sighed in relief when he saw the sign that told all that it was Iruka's classroom. His pace quickened for a bit, before he forced himself to slow down, not wanting to disturb the sleeping beauty he carried. Reaching the doorframe, he stopped and took a deep breath to calm his nerves and stepped into the class, as he saw Iruka sitting in his desk, looking over what seemed like the written test that they had done earlier. His entrance into the classroom was only known by the sound of his sandals on the marble floor and was addressed to by his teacher, the man not looking up until he was about to say his name.

"About time you got here…Naruto?" he saw the confusion on his teachers face and slightly blushed without knowing why.

"Um…heh…hi…Iruka-sensei" the boy nervously said as he stood there, still holding the unconscious girl. He was about to tell him it wasn't what it looked like when he was interrupted by the last person he had expected to speak at that moment.

"mmm…Naruto-kun…" the oblivious Hyuuga said as she snuggled into the boy's chest and turned her head slightly, taking in a deep breath pulling his scent in with the air., her eyes still closed. The said boy's reaction was immediate as his legs started to shake and then started to buckle under him. He acted quickly and leaned his back against the doorframe, slowly lowering himself down until he was sitting on the floor with his legs stretched out and the girl now resting in his lap, her head still snuggled to his chest. He blushed a crimson red and looked down at the girl in bewilderment, trying to think up of a logical solution to her recent outburst.

Iruka was shocked when he saw the blonde boy come in carrying the girl and it soon gave way to confusion at wondering what had happened. The confusion quickly changed to worry as he saw his student almost fall but catch himself before that could happen and then lower himself to the ground where he sat looking down at the girl in his arms with a blush across his face.

"Naruto, what happened? Is everything O.K?" his teacher asked as he quickly stood up and walked towards the sitting boy. Kneeling next to him, he looked the boy over head to toe and couldn't see anything that was worthy of concern. Then he looked at the girl in his arms and looked her over, seeing nothing of worry, he looked at the girls face, expecting to maybe see an expression of pain or something, but was surprised to see the peaceful smile that was lit across her features. He looked back to the boy and then back towards the girl and then the two pieces practically clicked into his brain and he smiled at the two.

"Here, you go sit in your seat and I'll take Hinata to the nurse's office, just to make sure she's not sick or anything ok?" Iruka lightly said to the boy as he reached for the girl.

Naruto looked up at his teacher and nodded his head when Iruka finished talking. He slowly started to get up and was thankful for the older male helping him up. He doubted he'd have the energy to pick himself up with the young heiress in his arms. When he was standing, he took a second to catch his breath from the exertion and then moved to hand the still sleeping girl over to his teacher. As Iruka moved his hands under Naruto's and was ready to pick the girl up, to the boys surprise, the girl's eyes started to slowly flutter open.

Hinata's conscious slowly started to return to her and the first thing she felt was an extreme sense of warmth on her left cheek. Confusion was the next thing she felt as she slowly opened her eyes to see the source of the heat. When she first opened her eyes, her vision was blurry and she couldn't see clearly so blinking a few times, her vision cleared a great degree and she was finally able to clearly see the origin of the heat. Her first reaction to looking up into Naruto's face was to jolt upright and see if she was dreaming or not. Unfortunately for her, she was still in Naruto's arms and her sudden jolt at trying to sit up caused his hold on her to falter and he started to fall back.

Naruto was about to say 'good morning' to the now awakening girl but he was stopped when he felt his center of gravity shift backwards from the girls sudden movement and he found himself falling backwards. Lucky for him, he wasn't that far from the door frame and ended up having the wooden barrier hit him right in the middle of his shoulder blades. He felt a jolt of pain go through his body and he lost his breath for a second before he caught himself from sliding down the wooden bean and pushed himself up and rubbed his back. A sudden thought came to him when he realized that his hands were now free. 'Huh? Where'd Hinata go?' his question was answered when he looked up and saw that Iruka was now holding the girl with an expression on his face that just exuded laughter.

Iruka looked down from the boy in front of him and then down to the girl in his arms before letting a light chuckle out.

"Hello there Hinata, good to have you back with the rest of us" he chuckled some more when he saw the beginnings of a blush appear on her cheeks.

"Now that we have both of you back, we can begin with the last part of the test. If you'll please go to your seats we can begin" He said as he set the girl down on to her feet and then ushered the two to their seats.

He turned and made his way back to the front of the classroom and turned around to look at the whole class. When he saw Naruto and Hinata sit down he began.

"Alright everyone, this will be the final part of your graduation examination and I'm standing here with great hopes that all of you will pass. Now as I call your name, you'll be coming up to the front and do the bunshin jutsu. After everyone has had a chance to go, we'll give you all a second chance to try again. If you don't get it the second time, you will fail this portion of the exam and it may also affect weather you graduate or not. Now first up is…"

As students, one by one made their way up to the front of the class as their names were being called up, Naruto let his head rest on his forearms as he was leaning forward on his desk. His eyes were closed and he was in a state of drowsiness. Thanks to his early morning training, his chakra was really low and he was tired from the exertion from the previous two parts of the exam. His mind would periodically venture back to Hinata's unexplained action when he had been carrying her and his even more than surprising reaction but brushed it aside as her usual acting as she would always blush and stutter and then faint eventually around him. His reaction was probably the exhaustion of his training, the tests, and from the effort of carrying the faint girl from the outside to the classroom.

Iruka's voice would periodically intrude into his mind as he heard the man call the names, one name sticking to out to Naruto more than the others students, as they made their way down in random order and then either being congratulated on a job well done or being told that they only had one more chance to pass. 'Heh, I'll bet I'll be one of the few that needs the second try' He said to himself.

"Naruto, You're up" He heard his teacher call him and without a second thought, he made his way down the steps from his seat and stopped around six feet from his teacher.

"Alright Naruto, you've done very well so far and if you pass this, you'll graduate. Now, all you got to do is make a pair of bunshin successfully." His teacher told him.

Naruto nodded his head once signalling he understood and started to concentrate his chakra. A light blue film began to emit from his body as he poured every single piece of his concentration into the creating of the jutsu.

He doubted he'd be able to make the bunshin thanks to the low amount of chakra he had left but he didn't give up. Instead he just concentrated on making the copies of himself. 'No, I've got to get this, I know I can and I will' He shouted in his head. Little did he know, he was supposed to make a simple bunshin, a mere illusion of himself, instead, his thoughts turned to making solid clones. This was, surprisingly enough done unconsciously and he began to pull on every ounce of chakra that was left in his boy.

The light blue film around the boy's body slowly started to darken and become more visible. Small wisps of chakra began to emit from the now clearly visible glow that enclosed the blonde's body. Little spiralling wisps erupting from the barrier of chakra, letting out small hisses as they spiralled into the air and then slowly faded into the air, becoming a part of the vast nothing that surrounded everything.

'Come on, I can do this! I know I can!' the young boy shouted in his mind, pouring every last drop of chakra he had in his body into the jutsu. He felt a sudden pull on his mind and before he knew it, he started to feel his body start to cramp and a massive jolt of pain run through his entire body, as more and more chakra started to pour out. He didn't know what was going on except for the fact that his chakra was now pouring out of his body and in no less than a few more seconds; he'd be completely out of the vital essence, resulting in his death.

Deep down inside, deep into the confines of his mind, his very being, within the very confines of his body, a conscience, an existence was stirred from its intended eternal slumber. The unknown existence slowly opened its eyes and stretched its vision, expanded it to every corner of the boys mind, body and soul, trying to find the cause for its awakening. The conscience was presented to the reason for its rousing when it felt the jolt of pain that went through the boy's body.

Confused at this sensation, having never felt something like this before, the great entity came to the conclusion that it detested the feeling and began to rid the expanse of space it resided in of it. Using its powers, the unknown conscience began assessing this boy's body, his power, his mind, his very being.

It then began to assess the cause of the hated sensation and was mildly amused when it found that the young human was about to use up every single bit of his essence and would then perish. It began to chuckle to itself, 'such weak beings, wasting their very essence in such a foolish manner'

A sudden burst of the despised feeling tore through the entity's thoughts and it halted as it let out a low rumbling sound, very much like a growl. 'Curse these beings and their pitiful sensations' the mighty power cursed as it began to remedy the cause for its discomfort. A lone tendril of crimson lanced from the center of the entity and arched its way towards the edge of its confines as it seeped through the nothing that surrounded it. The tentacle of power continued forward coming to a second of hesitation as it reached a giant barrier of bars. It continued its forward motion, passing through the bars and then stopping at the center of the great expanse of area that presented itself beyond the barrier.

Before anything else could happen to the young human, the tendril burst into a mass of many more, each new one now arching its way towards the edge of the space reaching for the walls that stood up from the ground and transcended up into the darkness that plagued the ceiling, hiding it from view, making the room look like it reached an endless height. The once one, now thousand, red tendrils bore into the walls with force unparalleled by any other. Tearing through the outer reaches and planting them deep within the structure. An ominous pulse, a beat, a wave went through the tentacles, power like none other being carried by the motion coursed its way through the tentacles and into the walls.

The entire expanse pulsed once, twice, a third time with the crimson colour before it pulsed a fourth time, only now it beat with the colour of the sky, a blue so pure in contrast to the malevolent red that had been radiated before. The entity made a sound that resembled a purr as the detestable sensation faded and a sense of power was felt. The hated sensation now gone, the conscious felt through the human's mind, looking for an explanation as to why the pain first appeared, its answer came to it as the young males thoughts came to the entity's understanding.

'So this being wishes to make more of himself…this might be worth a few moments of amusement…So be it!' The entity bellowed as the tendrils violently pulsed once with power that made the previous beats pale in comparison. The powerful pulse not only produced power, it brought something to the dark place that the entity hadn't seen in more than a decade. The beat brought with it a crimson glow that illuminated the great area for only a moment, but that moment was more than enough for the entire expanse of space to be brought to the light. The ceiling of the room was shown, lined with what looked like pipes made of an unknown substance to the entity.

Had anything been in the room to notice, as the red glow began to dim, behind the bars, where the conscious was kept at bay, two orbs of the most evil red were seen.

Those red orbs flashed with rage and evil intent with such intensity that even the light seemed to fear going near as it started to fade away. The orbs were the very embodiment of death. Those dark red orbs where the source of fear in many, for the entity that those eyes belonged to was none other than the most feared existence to every exist, the great beast that brought havoc and war wherever it tread, even now when it could no more than look upon the world it still brought pain and fear to the world, the nine tailed fox, Kyuubi no Kitsune.

Naruto began to panic when he felt the jolt go through his body as more and more of his chakra began to leak out through his pores. This wasn't supposed to happen, he knew enough about the body to know when it became dangerous for the human when their chakra reached a certain level and his chakra had already passed that level and it was still coming out. He didn't have any more control over it and it kept pouring out like an open faucet with the handle broken, unable to slow it down or stop it. A second jolt of pain tore through his body and mind, more stronger and intense than the first and he felt his legs start to buckle underneath him as he fell to the ground, kneeling on the ground his hands now at his side, head bowed down as sweat started to pour down his brow from his body being put under so much stress under such a short time.

His chakra was no longer a light sheen over his body, it was now clearly visible and was flaring in an inferno of blue chaos at it arched a good 2 feet above his head and a foot in every other direction. Flames of blue licked the ground and burnt the top of the wood it was made from. Even after his fall, it continued to flare; his mind was on the verge of collapse from the exhaustion that now not only blanketed his body but his mental plain as well.

He heard the light sound of someone calling his name and with more effort than he had ever had to apply to moving his neck, he looked up and through blurry eyes, saw the form of Iruka and he lightly heard his name being called again.

That exact same time, his chakra stopped flaring. It suddenly stopped and disappeared leaving the young boy still kneeling in front of his teacher. The haze in his eyes cleared up and he could clearly see his teacher as a calm tranquil feeling seeped into his body and mind. His eyes started to close and he came to the realization that he was going to die. His body felt completely empty, not a single ounce of chakra left in it. As his eyes slowly drifted close, he was about to say goodbye to his teacher and the world when the feeling of calm and tranquility was shot out of his body making his eyes shoot open from the shock as the over bearing feeling of power swept through his body like a massive tsunami, strong enough to level the world.

His chakra flared with such intensity and speed it created a sound similar to that of a lightning bolt cracking across the sky. The brightness that the chakra created was bright enough to make his teacher and the students cover their eyes and turn their heads to prevent permanent damage being done to them. The light only lasted an instance and then completely faded allowing all the occupants of the room a view of the spectacle that they were presented to with.

In front of Iruka stood Naruto, not kneeling anymore, chakra flaring around him like a flame with him in the direct center of it. What really caught the eye of everyone in the room was not the intensity of the chakra, but the colour of it. Gone was the sky blue colour that was so familiar and matching with his eyes, replaced by a golden yellow. The intensity of the chakra was so great that it had small static discharges arching across it, making the hairs on the back of the occupants in the room stand up from the heightened electricity in the air. His hair had dried in an instant and had shot straight up standing on end, seemingly longer than it was before, as it blew in an invisible wind that wasn't felt by any of the others, His clothes where along the same lines as they moved to an unseen and unfelt breeze.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Iruka was frozen in place as he looked at the boy that was his student. Never in his entire time of knowing the little boy had he seen him display such power. The boy's chakra was flaring uncontrollably and he was beginning to worry that the boy would exhaust himself wasting so much as he saw wisps of it blow away from the boy and disappear into the air. He was jerked out of his stupor when he saw the boy fall to his knees and he called out to the young lad hoping to get his attention to try and stop what was happening and fearing what would happen.

"Naruto!" he was slightly relieved when he saw the boy lift his head and look up at him and was about to tell him to stop when the boy's chakra stopped suddenly and completely disappeared. His throat choked up when he saw the boys eyes slowly start to close and he realized that the boy didn't have any chakra signature at all. He flexed his legs and was ready to jump to the boy but before he could even bend his legs, the boy's chakra flared back with an intensity that dwarfed the previous flare ten times over.

He felt a push on his body and his knees started to bend from the pressure that was exerted on his body. 'Where is all that power coming from?' His thoughts were halted when he unconsciously turned his head to his left and brought his hand to stop from being blinded by the sudden light that flashed through the classroom, hoping that none of his other students had been blinded by it and turned away in time as well.

When the light started to fade, he turned his head back slowly and looked back at the spot where Naruto was previously kneeling only to find the boy standing, looking directly at him with eyes that were completely blank. Only his blue irises were visible, his pupil completely gone. The boy's chakra was again flaring and this time his legs almost buckled from the pressure that was hitting his body. He quickly glanced to the side and saw that most of the students were panting and sweating while trying to keep themselves still sitting in their chairs.

His attention was brought back to the boy in front of him when he saw him do a series of hand signs before a cloud of smoke started to appear, slowly becoming thicker and thicker until he was unable to see anything. He looked around and saw a golden light penetrate through the thick fog like substance and figured it was Naruto. He heard something that sounded like a 'whoosh' of the wind before the cloud started to dissipate slowly. When it was gone, he noticed that the golden coloured chakra that was coming from Naruto was also beginning to wane as well. When the fog like cloud disappeared, in front of him where once Naruto stood were now 31 clones of the boy with one of them standing in the middle, 15 on each side. He looked at the one standing up in the front and locked eyes with him before the young blonde brought his right hand up to the back of his neck and started to rub it before he spoke.

"So Iruka sensei, how'd I do?" He grinned from ear to ear before he suddenly stopped and started to fall forward.

Iruka moved in an instance and caught the boy before he could hurt himself and looked down at the boy with a mix of surprise, pride and amazement. 'This was the boy who didn't even know how to write properly until his second year?' He thought, smiling down at his now unconscious student. Iruka looked up at the other kids and saw the mixed looks that the kids had on their faces. He saw most of them were the ones that he had expected astonishment and surprise, seeing worry in two pair of eyes. He looked over and one look had him almost as surprised as Naruto's little stunt. It was the look that Uchiha Sasuke was sending towards the young blonde. It was a look that just screamed hate, jealousy and irritation. He sighed inwardly and turned down to the boy in his arms before rising and looked back towards the class.

"Ok everyone, I'm just going to take Naruto to the nurses office and then I'll be back, I don't want you to make any noise what so ever. I'll be back shortly and then we'll continue with the rest of the exam" his voice shook everyone out of their stupor and he saw the majority nod their head still in a daze. With one last look that lingered on the Uchiha survivor, he made his way out the door and down to the nurse's office, smiling down at this student every now and then.

It took him no less than seven minutes to make his way down to the nurses place, tell her he fainted during his graduation exam and then quickly made his way back to his classroom. When he stepped in, he noticed that everything was the same as before, except for maybe Sakura and Ino who were once again fighting in silent whispers about something. He mentally shrugged as he made his way to his desk, at least they were quiet about it this time and he silently thanked Naruto for his unintentional shocker.

He called up the next student and the test progressed as it normally did and in no time at all, everyone was finished.

"Great work Telina, you pass" he proudly said as he handed the dark-green haired girl a headband with a green strip of cloth. He saw the girls eyes light up with appreciation and happiness.

"Thank you Sensei! I love green!" She exclaimed as she quickly tied the head band around her neck like a necklace and let it down slightly until it reached the top of her collarbone. He wouldn't admit it, but other than Naruto, the little green headed girl was one of his favourite students to teach.

She would always ask questions when she didn't' understand something and whenever he wasn't helping Naruto after classes she'd come and ask for some extra help on certain things she was having trouble with. He remembered this one time a week and a half after their first year in school when she had come to school after classes were over, looking for him for some help.

He had been helping Naruto on the history part of the curriculum. She had knocked on the door and had politely waited for him until he was finished explaining the point he was helping with before asking her question. Surprisingly, it was also on the same portion of history that he was explaining to Naruto and before he could say anything he was interrupted by Naruto.

"I was going to ask him the same thing too. Wanna work together? Kill two birds with one stone." The young boy exclaimed as he smiled down at the green haired girl.

Iruka looked back at his student with a soft expression and looked down at the young girl with an expecting expression, waiting for her answer. He had expected her to back down and decline the boys offer, having seen how the boy was treated by the students from time to time. He was surprised however when he heard her answer.

"Sure! That'd be great! The more the merrier!" and was mildly surprised at the lightest of blushes that was present on the girls face. He looked back at his blonde student and chuckled inwardly. 'Heh, my, my Naruto, already you got girls after you and you haven't even graduated' he looked back at the green haired girl motioned for her to walk over to the seat beside Naruto's and pulled up his own chair as he saw the girl sit down next to the boy, that light blush, increasing the slightest in colour.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot. I'm Naruto!" He saw the boy exclaim and put his right hand out, scratching the back of his head in signature move with his left. The girl was a little startled by his sudden introduction and her blush deepened ever so slightly as well. Then she smiled almost as wide as the boy and took his hand in hers as she introduced herself.

"Hi! I'm Telina, nice to meet you" Both shook hands and then turned back to their teacher who was smiling down at the two from his seat, his chair and height making him still taller than the two as they were sitting in the first row of seats.

After he asked Telina just exactly what she wanted help on, he quickly told Naruto about his part and then started the extra lesson teaching both. He was glad to see that unlike the other students, Telina wasn't mean to the boy, she'd help him and to his surprise, the boy would help her when she was stuck on some part as well. After their first study session together at school, the two decided to come every other day to get in some extra help from their teacher.

Iruka smiled down warmly at the girl that was smiling up at him and lovingly rubbed the top of her head with his free left hand.

"Congratulations Telina, you've earned it and you deserve it for all your hard work" he congratulated the girl and chuckled when he saw the girl blush lightly from embarrassment.

As he looked back over the class, he noticed that everyone in the class had a Konoha leaf headband tied securely around their forehead, arm, thigh, waist in Ino's case, or loosely around their necks as Hinata, Telina and a few others had it. He looked over at everyone and smiled widely, letting his happiness and pride show as he loudly exclaimed to everyone in the classroom.

"Congratulations! Now as a treat, I'll let you all go early. But be back here tomorrow because that's when you will be told who will be told which Genin team you are assigned to and who your new teachers will be! Now, get out the lot of you, holy macarole, you'd think it was a classroom or something" He heard a few of the students laugh at his joke and he joined in letting his happiness at them passing show. He laughed even more as some of the boys let out a 'whoop' of happiness and joy as they jumped out of their seats and rushed out the door, laughing and in the case of Kiba, shouting 'boo yeah' on their way out.

He was broken from his thoughts when he felt a tug on the sleeve of his shirt and looked down to meet the hazel eyes of Telina as the girl had an uncharacteristic look of worry on her face. He bent down so he was eye level with her and waited for her to speak first.

"Sensei is Naruto okay? And did he pass?" her question shocked the older male out of his little stupor of happiness and then smiled at the girl. Never would've he thought she would be the one asking him that. He had expected Hinata to ask him that question but never the tomboy of the class Telina. She was curious, he gave her that much, but she never openly showed concern for anyone in the three years he had known her. Looking into her eyes, he noticed the worry was genuine and he smiled lightly at her before answering.

"Don't worry Telina. That knucklehead might've overdone it, but he's just fine and as far as I'm concerned, he passed with flying colours." He saw her reaction instantly as her eyes lit up with happiness and a wide smile blazed across her face as she jumped in happiness clapping her hands together and then making a beeline for the door and was down the hall and out the door in a matter of seconds. Iruka was completely knocked off his bearings at the girl's sudden reaction. He hadn't expected that reaction from her, ever. He stood back, shaking his head and then chuckled to himself. He looked back out at his now empty classroom and felt a sense of sadness come over him for a second.

His classroom was now empty, the kids who he had come to care for so much over the expanse of three years were now moving out into the real world, and he already missed a couple of them. He'd miss yelling at them to quiet down; he'd miss the numerous pranks that a handful of the boys in the class would pull on each other and the rest of the class. He laughed inwardly when he remembered one time, he had been walking up and down between rows to see how the students were doing when he heard Naruto's name being said silently near the back of the class.

Getting curious, he walked over to the back group of boys acting casual pretending to look at the students near him as he channelled chakra to his ears, enhancing his hearing many times to that of a normal human. What he heard gave him both amusement and shivers as he came to realize just what they were saying about the blonde boy.

"Heh, you guys remember that time when he pulled that prank in the girl's washroom?" one boy said as he pretended to work on the assignment.

"Yeah, that was pure genius. How'd he pull that one off I'd love to know" said another.

"I heard he snuck into the school late at night and that's when he did it. I think it was after that prank that he got named 'The King of Capers'" Said a third one that sat in between the first two.

"With the stuff he's pulled, I'd say it fits him perfectly. I hear he's never been caught before" said the second boy.

"Seriously? Dang, he must be good" Said the third one.

Iruka smiled at the warm memory and turned to his desk to gather up his papers and clear his desk for the new notes and paper that he'd need for the new class that would fill this room in a week's time. He stopped however when he noticed one headband was still on it. He looked at it in confusion before he realized who it was supposed to be given too. He reached down and picked it up before putting it in his pocket and then finishing up the task at hand.

Gathering and neatly piling all the papers, he picked them up and then turned out the door flicked the light off with his free right hand and then shut the door locking it and then making his way down towards the teachers office which was on the way to the nurses office, that being his last destination. Coming to the teacher's office, he opened to door to see the other teachers there as well. Some were up by the counter sipping coffee out of their cups and others sitting at their assigned desks, probably working on some last minute work before heading home. He turned towards his desk and weaved his way through the rows, making sure not to disturb any of his colleagues that were working on his way.

Sitting down in his chair with a heavy sigh, Iruka looked at all the papers that were scattered across his desk. 'Gods, I really need to learn to be more organized' he mused to himself as he started to clear up the papers. Barely 5 minutes later, he had his desk clean and was more organized than he had ever seen it. Lightly chuckling to himself, he stood up and headed out the teachers office and turned right, heading right towards the nurse's office.

When Iruka reached the aforementioned office, he saw the woman sitting at her desk and smiled to her in greeting when he saw her look up at him. He looked out towards the beds that where lined along the right side of the room and saw that three beds down from the entrance was the sleeping form of Naruto. He hadn't expected the boy to be still sleeping but thinking back to the amount of chakra that the boy had used up, he would've been astounded to see the boy up and running anytime soon.

He looked back towards the nurse and walked over to her, sitting down in the extra chair at the desk that was meant for a patient when they were being check up on if they were sick or when needing to be healed from slight injuries.

"How's he doing? Any changes?" he asked the older lady.

"No he hasn't changed much in the last hour. He's been sleeping off the exhaustion." The nurse smiled at him after her response. He nodded his understanding and then prepared himself for the berating he knew that was coming and winced when he realized he hadn't prepared himself even the slightest bit for what he received.

"His chakra was exhausted to the point where I couldn't even sense it for a good 15 minutes when you first brought him in. Mind telling me what a student is doing in your class for him to be brought here with such a low amount of chakra that it wouldn't even be readable?" she hissed at him in obvious anger showing clear worry for the young boy.

Iruka bowed his head as he let her chew him out and then when he was sure she wasn't going to have any more blow ups like that, he tilted his head upward slightly and then ducked it back down when he saw her sweltering glare directed at him. After about a minute of getting his bearings back together, he answered her question.

"Heh…well you see…we were having the graduation exam and when he came up to do the bunshin jutsu…he started to pull out a lot of chakra. After that, he performed the jutsu and then after that he collapsed." He replied hiding the fact about the second flare the boy's chakra did.

"Well…it's a good thing you brought him in when you did, any later and I'm not sure he would've made it" the nurse replied in a more subdued and softer voice. The thought of the boy dying being more than enough incentive for her anger to calm itself as she cast a glance over to the still sleeping boy.

Iruka's head shot up at the new information and silently thanked the gods that he had rushed to the nurse's office when he did. He looked over towards the boy and let out a breath at seeing the boy's chest rise up and down, the motion calming his nerves and his mind.

"Well, we can't keep him here all night, I got to get home to my kids, think you can take him to his place? He's fine, all he needs is some sleep" The nurse said, facing the teacher once again.

"You didn't even need to ask" Iruka replied as he slowly got up and walked to the still sleeping form of the boy. Picking the boy up, like he had Hinata earlier, Iruka hefted the light boy and brought him to his chest and then turned himself to the nurse who was looking at him with a smile. He smiled back and then started for the door but stopped, turned around and said his thanks to the woman before making his down the hall and out the door.

He decided against jumping on rooftops and just walked leisurely down the roads, catching the odd look that was sent his way at carrying the boy. He sighed inwardly at the obvious distaste the villagers were showing towards his carrying the boy but he just shrugged them off as he made his way to the boy's apartment. It took no more than 20 minutes for Iruka to reach the boys residence and he walked up the stairs that led him to the boy's apartment door. Reaching the door, Iruka was thinking about how to open the door without waking the boy up, his answer was given to him in the form of a light that flashed into his eyes. He looked down and saw the head of a key peeking from under the welcome mat that was in front of the door.

Smiling at the blondes obvious hiding place, he gently changed the boys positions in his arms so that he was now carrying him with his left hand supporting his head and back and his right leg holding the boys legs up as he was kneeling down.

Picking up the key with his now free right hand, Iruka slipped it into the keyhole, the distinct sound of the tumblers doing just that, tumbling into place and then turned the key and pushing the door open, watching it as a creak came to his ears sending a shiver down his spine. 'I really gotta stop watching all those horror movies. They're terrible for the nerves' He said to himself as he lifted himself up while keeping the sleeping boy in his arms steady.

Walking into the dark apartment, Iruka's mind started to wander again to a movie he had recently seen and then slapped himself mentally at the stupidity of actually thinking that Naruto's apartment was the hideout for alien species that had come to take over humanity. He laughed at the absurdity of the idea and then continued down the hall into the small apartment and made a right at the hallway that lead to his room, him coming over here from time to time to wake the boy on weekends for their practices.

Reaching the boys room, he walked in and walked towards the boy's bed. Placing the boy on his bed, he took his sandals off and placed them by the foot of the bed. Next he took the boys jacket off, surprised he was able to sleep through all that. He grimaced slightly when he realized just what the cause behind the boy's deep slumber was and was slightly grateful for having him sleep in slumber rather than be sleeping in death.

He shook the depressing thoughts from his head and stood up, still looking down at the boy with a warm face. He turned to leave when he felt the foreign weight in his pocket and remembered the headband that he had picked up from his desk that was the blondes. He turned back around and noticed that a small trail of drool had already appeared on the side of the boys face and chuckled at the carefree look on the sleeping boys face. He turned his gaze and swept it around the boy's room, looking for an appropriate place to put the headband so the boy could see it.

He looked down and saw the perfect place. He placed it down on the boy's bed side table, and noticed that the boy still had his goggles on his head. Iruka gently took then off and put them right beside the headband and then kissed the boys now shown forehead before standing up and making his way for the door. He turned around one last time and remembered that he still had to tell Naruto that he was supposed to be at the academy tomorrow for his Genin placement.

He turned back and went back to the side table, looking around; he found a piece of paper lying under the goggles and picked it up. Searching through his vest, he found an ink pen and began writing on the white sheet, congratulation the boy on this graduation and that he had to be at the academy early tomorrow at around nine am so he could be assigned to a team and meet his new teacher. Getting up, Iruka made his way back to the door and looked back at the sleeping boy, said a silent good night before stepping down the hallway and out the front door, making sure to activate the locking mechanism on the knob that was on the inside of the door.

Naruto was in one of his most favourite dreams. He was sitting at his favourite eatery, the only place that he would go to eat, the place known as none other than Ichiraku's ramen stand. The boy was sitting in his favourite seat; the seat itself having his name on it was more than a warning for other's not to site on it. He was jumping with anticipation as he waited for his order to be ready. In no more than a few minutes, the most beautiful sight he had ever seen was presented to him.

There in front of him was the cute daughter of the ramen stand owner, Ayame, coming towards him with an extremely large sized platter that was covered with bowl after bowl of noodles. One bowl of each style and taste the little hut served was present on the platter and Naruto let a small tear of happiness fall from his eyes as he took in the sight and aroma of the food as it was placed in front of him. He looked up towards the brunette and mouthed a 'thank you' before grabbing the closest bowl to him, picking up a pair of chopsticks from the container that was placed next to him on the counter, he expertly snapped then apart with one hand and twirled them in the air with ease showing he had years of practice and expertise in the competitive sport of chopstick twirling.

He stopped spinning them and then grabbed a large amount of noodles with them, making sure to blow on them to cool them down, less he burn himself, and promptly opened his mouth and devoured the insanely large amount of noodles and hummed in pleasure from the taste. He was practically floating on cloud nine as the taste swept through his taste buds and into his brain. He silently gave his prayers to the man who created ramen and then returned to the task at hand, devouring the rest of the ramen that was in the bowl before moving to the next. Before he knew it, he had finished up all the ramen and was sitting content on his stool.

He looked up and smiled up at the owner and the man's daughter. To his surprise, Ayame stepped around the counter and came until she was standing right next to him. He arched a brow in confusion and then he saw the girl blush before leaning forward and closing her eyes, as she puckered her lips forward. Naruto was really surprised when she did that and was trying to move away from the girl, him hearing the other boys talking about the girls having some sort of disease that you caught if they kissed you. He tried to remember what they called it but the name just wouldn't come to him but the girl in front of him continued to lean forward, her eyes till closed and lips still pursed outward.

Her lips were now no more than a couple inches from his and they were coming closer. 'Oh no, what am I gonna do if I catch that disease? Oh no! What if they kick me from being a ninja because I got infected! This is bad!' he screamed to himself and willed his body to move, to push the descending girl away, to run away and to his dismay never come here again. Her lips where now no more than 2 inches from his and were closing in slowly, almost as if they were mocking him, saying they could do this slowly and he couldn't do anything about it. As her lips were only an inch away, sweat was pouring down the boys brow from the effort he was putting in trying to move away when a sudden light started to emit from between the space of his and the girls lips.

'Oh no! I'm already being infected! It's evolved and now it doesn't even need a kiss to transfer!' he shouted in his head as the light got brighter and brighter the closer her lips got to his. When it seemed like it was all over and the girls lips were about to touch his, the light got so bright that he had to close his eyes from being blinded and when he opened them again all he saw was the ceiling of his room.

'What on earth was that!?' he thought to himself as he sat up, his eyes adjusted to the bright light coming in through the window to his room, the rays landing directly where his head was just a few seconds ago. 'Well that explains the light I saw, but what the heck was with that kiss?' he mused as he looked around and what he thought earlier was confirmed when he realized that this place indeed was his room. The last thing he remembered was standing in front of his teacher, scratching the back of his head saying 'Well sensei? How'd I do?' everything before that was a mild blur starting from the end of the second part of the test up until now, except for that one little detail.

He noticed that he couldn't feel the distinct weight of the goggles that he usually felt on his forehead and reached up to check if indeed they were there or not. His hand hit nothing but his own skin and he looked around the room again, hoping he hadn't lost them anywhere. His eyes fell to his side table and he was instantly assaulted with confusion and curiosity. The latter of the two getting the better of him, he reached over and read the note, not even noticing the headband. Looking at the paper, he realized that it was a note from his teacher Iruka and read it over.

'Naruto

You fainted after you did the third part of the exam so I didn't get a chance to tell you so here it is. CONGRATULATIONS! I'm glad to say that you passed your graduation exam with spectacular results. I'm not sure exactly why you collapsed from chakra exhaustion but just glad that you're O.K. anyway, your headband is right next to your goggles. One more thing and very important thing too, you're going to have to come to class tomorrow at around nine am so you know who's on your genin team and who your new team teacher is. Remember, nine am, No latter, sooner is preferred. Anyway, congratulations once again and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow bright and early.

P.S. I found your key under the mat and placed it on the living table on my way out. Find a better place to hide it; it's too obvious.

Iruka'

Naruto chuckled at the ending and then turned his head to look at his side table once again. There sitting next to his goggles was the shining silver headband of Konoha. He smiled with happiness as he reached over with his right hand and picked it up, looking at it as the metal plate shined, reflecting the sunlight that seemed to shine with un-matched brightness into his room this morning. It was simple, a metal plate that was around 4 inches long and was somehow attached to the strip if heavy duty black cloth that hung down at least a foot and a half on either side of the plate. He shook himself out of his stupor of happiness and looked towards the clock that hung to the left of his bed next to the doorway that leads to his bathroom.

He looked at the clock hanging there and nearly had a heart attack when he realized he had exactly 10 minutes before 9 o'clock. Quickly putting his headband back on the side table next to his glasses and the note from his teacher, he jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to quickly brush his teeth and wash his face, not having enough time to take a shower. He did however take his shirt off and then turn the tap of the tub on and when he was comfortable with the cold temperature of the water, he promptly stuck his head under it and let his hair get soaked for about a quarter of a minute before pulling his head away and shaking his head to get the excess water out.

Turning the tap off, he walked out of the washroom, water still dripping from his hair and leaving trails down his back and the side of his face, neck and chest. He grabbed a towel and slightly dried his hair and then wiped his chest and back before going to his dresser and putting on a new dragon shirt. This one had a black dragon that was outlined in silver and the eyes where a golden with the pupils being silver. He hastily combed his fingers through his hair making it split through the middle and hang down the sides and a few locks falling in front of his forehead as he made his way around his bed to his bed sidle table. He picked up his jacket off the foot rail of the bed and put it on and then grabbed his brand new headband.

He was about to tie it around his forehead when he remembered how wet his hair was. Deciding against getting his new band wet so quickly, he tied on his left bicep and flexed a few times, adjusting the tightness so it neither slipped off from being too loose nor hurt him from being to tight. Nodding to himself, he quickly turned and headed for his kitchen. Sprinting into his kitchen/living, he jerked open the refrigerator and quickly looked around for something that he'd be able to eat on the go. Unable to find anything of the sort, the cursed inwardly and sword to buy some form of food that a person would be able to eat while they were traveling without having to prepare or anything.

He quickly shut the door and looked out over his counter and saw the basket that he had recently filled with fruits about 3 days back. He decided to just take what was present and grabbed two bananas, an apple and a pear and stuffed then into his side pockets while biting into the apple as he ran towards the door picking his key up from the table where Iruka had placed it on his table. Sprinting back towards his room when he realized that where his sandals probably he cursed into the apple that he had bitten into and quickly put the aforementioned footwear on and then sprinted down his hall, out the door, locked it quickly, threw his key into his mailbox and then jumped onto the roof of the short building that was in the same direction of the academy.

He hadn't bothered to look at the clock one more time on his way out for if he had, he wouldn't noticed that it hadn't changed its position from 8:45 at all, it's battery having run out yesterday night.

Naruto was on the edge of his life as he jumped from the roof of one building to another, running the width of the structures top and then jumping when reaching the edge of the platform onto another building and repeating the process in hopes of reaching the academy on time. He bit into the pear that he was carrying, having finished his apple in a mater of seconds before grabbing the green fruit while artistically jumping over a gap between buildings, throwing the apple core down as he leaped over, the core sailing downward only to bounce of a cardboard box, ricocheting into a garbage bin that was placed at an angle, successfully bouncing the core into the garbage bin it was placed over.

He pushed his legs extra hard when he noticed he had to jump onto a building that was almost a story taller than the one he was running on top of at the moment. Landing with a grunt, he bit into the last of the pear and then threw the center down into the ally that he had just jumped over. The same result as when he had thrown the apple core, having it land directly into a garbage bin this time. He reached into the side pocket of his pants and pulled out one of the bananas and peeled it before running again and then jumping to the roof of the building that was next to the one he was one currently.

He saw the academy very near and deducted that it would take him about two more minutes if he continued the pace he was running at right now. A sudden idea came to him and he decided he'd try it out since he didn't know when he'd get another chance since he had graduated and would be on a team with missions and such after today. When he reached the end of the roof of the building he was running on, instead of leaping forward like he had done previously, he jumped and pulled his legs back, using the force to turn his body backwards into a successful back flip, and then did it again before landing on his feet and using his forward momentum to make his landing into a barrel roll to reduce the pressure of landing to almost barely existing.

He smiled with excitement as the adrenaline rushed through his body. He could feel the endorphin level in his body slightly rise and his eye began to shine as he ran towards the edge of the roof towards the next building. This time, instead of running forward like he had previously, he threw his half eaten banana away and slowed his speed down to a more manageable speed and when he saw the next building was shorter than the one he was previously on, another idea came to him. With a 'whoop' of excitement, he quickly measured the distance between him and the edge of the building before doing a front flip, when he landed on feet he saw that he landed right on the edge like he had planned and then used the momentum from the front flip to do another flip, pushing extra hard with his legs to make it the extra distance he had to travel. His body propelled forward, and he spun himself in the air, doing a total of 26 spins before he landed on his feet and to lessen the stress on his feet, he did a dive and turned it into another barrel roll to reduce the stress on his feet.

His smile grew even wider and more adrenaline shot through his body as he continued his run to the end of the building he was now on. He saw he was no more than 3 houses away from the academy grounds and he decided to make these last jumps the best ones. He ran towards the next building and just like last time, he did a front flip as he jumped only again spinning himself at insane speeds this time doing 30 spins before landing on his feet and using his right hand to steady him from the dizziness that hit him.

He quickly straightened himself and then jogged to the end of the building again and noticed that the last two buildings each got shorter, the next building being double story as apposed to the three story he was standing on right now and the last building being a single story. Another idea came to him and he grinned as he neared the edge of the building. He quickly turned his body to the side when he reached the edge and using his forward momentum; he turned it into a side flip as he pushed off with his feet extra strongly as did a full side flip with his arms tucked into his side. Thanks to the extra strength he put into he jump, he landed near the edge of the second building in the opposite side and he repeated the process again, pushing off hard with his legs once more.

Landing at the edge of the one story building, Naruto did one last side flip turning it into another spinning frenzy as this time he put his all into the spinning and managed to spin 32 times before landing on his feet and using his momentum to do another two front flips before doing a barrel roll and then sprang to his feet stopping his forward momentum instantly. He noticed that he was a bit winded and took a minute to catch his breath and then he started to laugh. His laugh continued to rise in volume as he laughed at the excitement he felt when he was had been jumping. He laughed at the feeling he had when the endorphin in his body had increased giving him the strength he needed to pull off the stunts he had just pulled. He was sure that he would get addicted to the feel if he kept experiencing it over time.

After catching his breath from his bought of laughter, he looked at the academy building and saw that there was no one in the yard signalling only one thing, that he was late. He started to run towards the building with all the strength he had and was glad to know that even if he didn't have physical strength in terms of power, he still had strength in terms of speed and that was exactly how he liked it.

When he reached the building, he didn't stop one second, rather than stopping to open the door, he instead jumped up and landed on the vertical door handle, pushing with the force of his momentum behind him, he did a back flip off the handle, successfully opening the door while jumping back and flipping before he landed and was gone the instant his feet touched the floor, through the door and down the hall bolting towards the door that lead to his classroom.

Back where the door was still open from the blonde boy's acrobatic skills, it slowly started to close showing the form of a small girl with green hair standing in shock at what she had just witnessed. Never had she seen someone open a door in that manner, ever. Telina quickly caught herself then ran down the hall towards Iruka's classroom and reached just in time to see Naruto step through the doorway. She ran through the door and nearly collided with the boy who had for some reason stopped but stopped herself before she crashed and then pointed one finger at the blonde boy before loudly exclaiming with her arm outstretched towards him.

"How, on Earth did you do that Naruto!?" The said boy turned around and looked at the girl with a look of confusion and was about to ask her what she was talking about before they both were interrupted by Iruka coming into the classroom and silencing them and the rest of the class.

"Alright everyone quiet down. It's time to announce who's going to be on what team and who your new teachers are going to be." Naruto looked up at his teacher and saw the glare he was receiving. He felt a shiver go down his spine and then looked back at Telina before grabbing the girls outstretched hand and running up to a set of empty seats and sitting down, making her sit in the chair next to his.

"Alright now that everyone's seated, I'll announce the teams." He heard Iruka say before blocking off that man's voice as he turned to the girl that was still looking at him with an expression akin to wonder.

"What? Is there something on my face?" he asked sarcastically while crossing his eyes looking down at his nose and upper lip.

"No, how'd you do that back flip on the door?" Telina asked him, her curiosity obviously making it known in the second question she had asked him in a row this morning.

"What? Oh that. Heh, it's nothing special, I mean, you could probably do it to." Naruto lightly said, keeping his voice down and motioning the girl to do the same.

"Really? Can you teach me how to do back flips like that? I'd love to learn. That looked so cool when you jumped on the door handle and then went whoosh as you jumped in the air and then right as you landed you went zooming down the hall faster than me and that's saying something." The green headed girl exclaimed will making the motions of his jump with her hands.

Naruto chuckled lightly at her expression and smiled at the girl. She was one of his good friends other than Hinata that didn't show any kind of animosity towards him. Where Hinata was the shy and timid friend that always did things sensibly, Telina was the exact opposite and more close to his personality being a bit loud and doing things on an impulse at times yet still retaining seriousness in her actions and thinking patterns.

"Team 6 will be Hinata, Telina, and Naruto" Naruto turned at Iruka's voice and his face lit up in a smile when he realized who would be on his team. He looked down at Hinata who was sitting beside one of the girls in their class at the last seat next to the walkway down to the front and saw her looking up at him with a blush on her cheeks. He smiled widely down at her and let out a whoop of happiness and then turned to Telina who was sitting next to him. He looked at her and saw her turn her head towards him with the faintest of blushes on her face and he let out another whoop of excitement as he jumped into the air.

"Calm down Naruto! I haven't even told you who your team teacher is going to be. Now as I was saying, team 6's teacher will be Sarutobi Asuma" Iruka then continued naming off the other teams and their teachers but Naruto's didn't pay attention to that. He quickly got out of his chair and rushed down to the seat that Hinata was sitting on and before the blue haired girl could say anything, he had grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her chair.

"Come on Hinata-chan, we're teammates now, we gotta stick together ya know" he explained as he drug her up the stairs to where he and Telina where sitting and sat her down on the chair next to his. He promptly sat down himself and then let a grin across his face feeling happiness at being put on a team with two of his best friends.

"This is great isn't it? We're on the same team!" Naruto exclaimed loudly as he turned from Hinata to Telina and then back before looking back towards the front of the classroom, his excitement being painfully obvious to the more subdued girls.

"Yes N-Naruto-kun, that is g-great" the Hyuuga heiress said lightly as a blush lightly grazed her cheeks at the prospect of spending everyday with Naruto from this day forth.

"Yeah! It's gonna be great!" Telina exclaimed as she let a wide smile on her face as she looked over to Hinata from around Naruto. The heiress smiled shyly back at the green head and then turned to Naruto, her blush getting a bit deeper before turning back to the front of the classroom.

"Alright, that's the last team, now all of you have to wait here until your teachers come pick you up. In the mean time, why don't you get to know your new teammates" Iruka said as he sat behind his desk and pulled out a book that had the words 'Word Search' written across it.

Just as Iruka had finished speaking, a woman with dark brown hair walked into the class followed by a man who had a beard and had a cigarette lit hanging from his mouth. The woman said something to Iruka before turning to the class and introduced herself.

"I'm Yuuhi Kurenai, Team eight, please follow me" as she said this, she turned on her heel, pushing past the bearded man and stepped out of the classroom. Naruto saw 3 students quickly get up from their places and head down to the front following the woman outside. He turned his attention back to the front where he saw the bearded man talking to Iruka and then the man turned and looked directly at him.

"Asuma here, Team six, if you'll please" Naruto's eyes instantly opened wider when he heard the man say his name and then he quickly got up and started to head down the stairs and out the door, quickly followed by the two other girls on his team. When they exited the classroom, they saw their teacher leaning with his back against the wall as he blew a large puff of smoke before turning to them and motioned with his hand to follow him.

Naruto just raised an eyebrow and looked at his other two teammates and just saw then shrug before all three followed the man outside and then sat down near the edge of the field under a tree. Reaching the tree, they all copied his example and sat down on the green grass under the tree being mindful to sit so the breeze was blowing from behind them keeping the smoke the man exhaled away. First Naruto sat down, and then Telina sat down to his right, and lastly Hinata to the boys left and all three waited for something to happen. Their answer came when the older male flicked his cigarette, only having smoked half of it, onto the pavement and then taking a deep breath before he turned to the three.

"Alright you kids, the name's Asuma. I'm a Jounin instructor and I'm gonna be your teacher for the next while. Pleased to meet you" he said with a lax voice that exuded laziness to the three.

The three kids were surprised at the carefree attitude their new teacher was showing and were about to think that they had gotten the rotten end of the deal when Naruto remembered something he had once read in one of the many books he had read in the school's library. 'One who has strength and wisdom doesn't flaunt, instead he hides it so to surprise the enemy and gain the upper hand in battle' He looked back at their new teacher and let a smile across his face.

"Heh, nice to meet you Asuma-sensei, I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm gonna be the best student you've ever had. Believe it.!" He exclaimed while he grinned his signature grin at his new sensei.

"Right back at ya kiddo" Naruto heard him say as he placed his left hand behind his head and started to rub it in his characteristic action, all the while grinning at the older man. Next Telina decided to introduce herself.

"Hey, I'm Telina Sphinale and I'm going be the best Kunoichi this village has ever seen. Better than the legendary hermit Tsunade" Telina exclaimed making Asuma widen his eyes a bit.

"Oh, so you know about Tsunade now. Interesting, well I'll tell you now, she's the best medic Nin that this world has seen in a long, long time. Weather you make it or not, I'm sure we'll all be there to help you on your goal" Asuma replied and he saw his other two students nod their heads to affirm his beliefs and he smiled inwardly. 'These kids will go places, I can tell.' He turned towards the blue haired girl and in an instance knew that she was a famed Hyuuga. He hadn't known that many Hyuuga himself, but of the few that he did, they all showed themselves as egocentric beings that thought they were above everyone else and held their heads high with blind pride.

'Heh, kinda ironic since they say their Byakugan is all seeing' he inwardly chuckled at his joke and then looked back at the timid girl waiting for her introduction.

"M-My name's Hyuuga Hinata and I w-want to become a s-strong heir to the head of the clan so that I c-can get rid of the c-caged bird seal" The shy girl quietly said, not once moving her head from its bowed position, poking and twirling her fingers together.

"A very noble goal if I've ever seen one. Don't worry; if there's one thing I'm positive about, it's that if you have a goal and you put effort towards it, you'll reach it. Might be late, but you'll reach it. Now that introductions are out of the way, I'm sure you all are aware of where training ground 12 is right?" when he saw all three nod their heads he continued.

"Alright I want the three of you to show up there and then we're going to head to the Hokage's office after that so we can get your mission test started." He told them and was about to get up when he was interrupted by Naruto.

"Mission test? What the heck's that?" The blonde asked confusion clearly visible on his face.

"Well Naruto, most Jounin instructors put their teams through a test on the first day which would have been today to see whether or not the students are worth becoming Genin or not." When he saw the confusion in not only the boy's but both the girl's eyes increase as well, he sighed hating having to explain things.

"Alright, it's like this. The academy that you all attend to for three years equips you with the knowledge and skills that are needed to become a Genin, but the Jounin instructor's test sees whether or not you know how to use the skills. Think of it like this; consider your brain like a kunai pouch and the kunai as the skills and knowledge you gain from the academy teachers." He saw all three nod their head before he continued.

"Now when the pouch reaches its maximum capacity, think of that as your graduation point where you graduate from the academy." He stopped to let all three absorb that bit and then continued.

"Now if you were the person with the kunai now representing your skills, and you threw one of those kunai, think of that as using one of your skills." He saw all three nod their heads and finished up his explanation.

"If you don't know how to properly throw a kunai and used one, it wouldn't be that effective as opposed to knowing how to throw it properly and hitting your target dead center." He finally saw the confusion from their eyes leave and be replaced with understanding as he finally stood up.

"And with that said, remember to be at training ground 12 tomorrow morning at 10 am. You're all dismissed and rest up, cause the mission isn't going to be an easy one."

Naruto and the two girls watched the man walk away leaving only one thought in all three of their minds. 'Interesting man. Weird and lazy, but interesting'


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone. How's it goin. Well here's chapter 3 for all your readers out there. I'm a bit dissappointed that the chapter isn't 10 000 words, but I couldn't find anything to add to it to help me. Just couldn't come up with anything without haveing to re-write the entire chapter and those of you that have read it know that it's a good chapter and re-writing it would have been pointless. Anyway, enjoy this chapter. I shall get started on chapter 4, just as soon as I wake up, have some food, play some games, eat some more food, and then I get to chapter. Without further adoo, here's chapter 3 of Beauty is in the Eye re-visited.**

**Chapter 3: Chapter 3**

**Beauty is in Eye…**

Chapter 3

"And with that said, remember to be at training ground tomorrow morning at 10 am. You're all dismissed and rest up, cause the mission isn't going to be an easy one."

Naruto looked at his new teachers back with a new sense of respect for the man. He might have seemed lazy at first, but the way he just explained to all three what the tests were all about, he instantly knew the man was more than he let on. With that thought in mind, the blonde boy slowly stood and patted his pant bottoms, getting all the loose dirt off of them before stepping forward and turning to his friends-turned-team mates and grinned towards them.

"Well that was interesting. So what do you guys wanna do now? We got about 5 hours before it starts to get dark…" he said while crossing his left arm across his chest and resting his right elbow in his left hand, his right hand under his chin, thumb and index finger rubbing it with an expression that looked like he was in a thinking pose. Unfortunately for the boy, his so called 'thinking expression' looked more or less like he was constipated, ending in his unplanned embarrassment at the hands of his newly appointed teammates.

The second Naruto took on his pose; Telina let out a laugh when she saw Naruto take on a thinking pose and couldn't help but fall over on to her back when the boy looked down at her, with confusion at her outburst.

"heh, ha ha ha…heh…hee hee…hooooh…" she slowly calmed down and then looked back at the boy and the now curious Hyuuga girl that also was looking at her with curiosity.

"I'm sorry Naruto, it's just…he he…your face..it looked so funny when you were…in that pose….Ha ha ha ha ha" The green haired girl burst out laughing again and was a bit surprised to hear a few restrained giggles erupt from the girl next to her but it only fuelled her own laughter.

Naruto just looked down at the laughing girl like she was crazy and was about to voice his thoughts when he was stopped by Hinata letting out a restrained giggle that came out in the form of a snorting like sound. The girl froze at that instance and a mortified look came upon her face as red started to seep into her complexion. Telina had abruptly stopped laughing and was looking at the shy Hyuuga with wide eyes. She looked over to Naruto to see that he also was looking at the blue haired girl and as her gaze fell back to the now fully flushed Hyuuga girl, she couldn't hold it in any longer and just burst out laughing as she fell back onto the ground, hugging herself, holding her sides as her ribs had started to hurt from all the laughing she was doing.

Naruto wasn't far off behind her as he looked at the laughing Telina, then looked back at Hinata as little snips of laughter started to come out from between his closed lips, and then before he knew it, he too was laughing boisterously with the green capped girl. His obvious mirth caused him to lose his balance and he fell, front first onto the ground with a thud.

His trip caused Telina to look at him face first on the ground through tears and more laughter erupted from her lips. Hinata was once again trying to hold back giggles but failed as she too let the laughter get the better of her and just like that, the two girls were laughing at the now grumbling boy as he righted himself and sat in front of them, legs crossed and rubbing his nose mumbling something about girls and their laughing fits.

After a few minutes of this, the girls had calmed down to the point where they were trying to catch their breath and wiping tears from their eyes. Naruto looked at the two with a pout and then decided it was time to actually do something rather than just sit and wait for something to happen to set the two off again. Getting up, he made sure not to do anything that would cause them to laugh and started talking again.

"Now that you've all had a good laugh…" he cursed himself for his lack of tact when he spoke, cause right when he said the word laugh, the two burst out into a fit of giggles again. It was about two minutes later when the two calmed down again, and looked up to the orange clad boy, trying hard not to laugh again at his pouting expression.

"Let's celebrate for being on the same team" Naruto quickly said, knowing that if they went into another fit of giggles, they wouldn't be moving from here for at least an hour. Seeing no signs of any more laughing fits, he mentally sighed with relief and waited as he saw them done thoughtful expressions.

"Hmmm…that's a pretty good idea. So any ideas as to what we could do?" Telina looked over at Hinata, waiting to see what she thought.

"How a-about we eat at a r-restaurant or something?" The shy girl replied looking at Telina, then at Naruto before bowing her head, the oh-so familiar blush back in place after locking eyes with the boy.

"Hmmmmmm…….." Naruto closed his eyes and thought about it for a second before inspiration struck him faster than a diving hawk.

"I know! Let's go to Ichiraku's!" The blond loudly exclaimed, making the girls slightly flinch at the sudden volume of his voice. When the ringing in their ears stopped, Hinata was the first out of the two girls to answer the boy.

"T-That sounds like a g-good idea N-Naruto kun…what do you t-think Telina-chan?" The blunette asked her female friend.

"I'm cool with that. As long as the foods good, I'm happy." Telina replied while smiling towards the other girl.

"Alright! Ichiraku's it is! Let's go before the early supper rush starts, I like to eat my food without having to fight for room." Naruto chuckled as he rested his head on his hands which were know behind his head, finger entwined to make a net of sorts for his cranium to rest against.

"Ok then! Let's Go!" Telina exclaimed, jumping up off of the ground and hoisting the blue haired heiress to her feet.

Naruto smiled widely at just the thought of seeing the old ramen stand owner. He quickly turned around and started to head towards the edge of the school yard, in the direction of the ramen stand, the two girls following the animated boy as he simply glowed with un-restrained excitement. They were both curious as to what could bring out such a positive response from the blonde boy and were left with question marks floating over their heads, not a single thought coming close to explaining his sudden burst in energy and happiness.

They three walked in comfortable silence as they headed to the edge of the academy grounds, being interrupted by stray chirps from birds from the many tree's that lined the yard. Reaching the fence that marked the edge of the field Naruto waited for the other two to catch up and when they were together again, it was Hinata who surprisingly spoke up out of the three.

"Ano…which w-way N-Naruto-kun?" The shy girl asked, head bowed, eyes peeking up at the blonde boy every now and then as she waited for his answer.

Hearing her question, Naruto looked at the girl and smiled at her, causing another blush to appear on the girl's face before pointing to his left.

"That way, it's only about 3 blocks from here so we can take our time and still make it before it gets a bit busy. I don't really like the idea of running there and eating while covered in sweat. I'm sure you guy's wouldn't like that either would you?"

At their nod, the boy smiled and started to walk ahead of the group, his happy attitude again confusing the girls.

"Hey Hinata, you know what's gotten into him?" Telina questioned the other girl, making sure to keep her voice low enough so Naruto couldn't hear her. Hinata looked at the back of the boy in question and silently wondered herself what the reason could be.

"I really don't know. Maybe he really likes the place we're going to and that's why he's this happy?" A logical reason, although, no one should be this happy over something like that, the boy was practically glowing and the answer eluded the girls. Deciding to let it rest until later, the girls quietly made small talk about what could their test tomorrow could be, occasionally getting the input from their blonde companion as they made their way to Ichiraku's.

"…go to some farm in the country and we'll have to work as farmers for a whole day." That was the end of the conversation as Naruto looked back towards where they were headed and realized that they had reached the establishment.

"We're here!" He exclaimed as he ran through the hanging cloth, the girls outside hearing him greet someone with that same happiness he'd been exuding ever since the plans to come here had been made.

"Hey old man! How've you been?" He greeted the chef as the two girls came through the entrance and sitting down on either side of him, Hinata to his right and Telina to his left.

"Hey Naruto. I've been good, you? And who are these beautiful ladies?"

The comment was greeted with the exact reaction the chef had expected with the girls blushing, one greatly more than the other and the boy blushing lightly from embarrassment at having, for an instance, forgotten about his new teammates.

"These are my new teammates! This is Telina and this is Hinata" he put a hand on their shoulder respectively with their introduction and then turned to look at the girls one at a time introducing the chef.

"And this, girls is Ichiraku, the owner and great chef of this place. He's the best at what he does if I have anything to say about it." He smiled at the two and then at the mentioned man, earning a chuckle in return from the older male.

"Ha Ha…well that's how it is, anyway, nice to meet you two. Now what will it be?" The man asked the three.

Naruto answered immediately saying he would like to have two extra large bowls of Miso ramen. The girls beside him turned to him and stared openly for a second before regaining their composure and then turning towards the chef and ordering a regular bowl of Miso ramen themselves. While they waited for their food to be prepared, the girls looked at the boy and noticed his smile was on full blast and then leaned forward a little, making eye contact with each other, a silent agreement made between the two to try and get the boy to open up and tell them about this place and the people. Something had to there to bring out such a reaction from the usually not so expressive boy.

"So...how is this place? It's gotta be pretty good if your smile's any indication." Telina took the initiative of asking the boy.

"Oh yeah, this place is the best. It's got the best tasting ramen I've ever had. I don't come here that often, but every now and then; it's a good treat and today is special, since we've all officially graduated from the academy." Naruto answered, looking and smiling at the girl.

"It is a-a special day so I g-guess it makes s-sense." Hinata pitched in from her side, ducking her head quickly when Naruto looked over at her, showing her his smile. The usual blush in place again as the blunette poked her fingers together in her nervous habit.

"Yeah…I guess it does…" Telina replied, letting the faintest of frowns slip across her lips as she turned her head from the blonde boy to the table top as her thoughts still refused to rest, even with the boy's answer which seemed as honest as it seemed reasonable. Her musing was interrupted before it even started by the appearance of a big bowl of ramen being placed into her line of vision, effectively catching her attention.

She was amazed at the large amount of noodles that were in the bowl and looked over at the other two to see that Naruto was already happily eating away with Hinata looking at her food with the same wonder she was. Turning back towards her bowl, she slowly picked up the set of chopsticks that she was presented with and broke them apart. Whispering a light 'Itadakimasu' to herself, she dipped the chopsticks in and fished out a hefty amount of noodles.

Blowing on them slightly, she moved the noodles towards her mouth, hesitating when she felt the heat exuding from the pasta. Looking over at her teammates one last time, finding Hinata mimicking her movements, Telina finally put the noodles in her mouth and was blown away. The texture of the noodles was just right, being not to hard or too soft. The rich flavour was neither over powering or understated and it felt like there was a party in her mouth. Finishing the first mouthful of ramen, she quickly scooped up another large amount and happily ate it, and the next, and the next until she was almost mimicking Naruto, eating at a speed that was reasonable, yet still fast to be considered normal.

Hinata was a bit shy at eating the ramen at first but after watching Telina taking the first step and bravely eating the stuff. She had had ramen countless of times before but it was always prepared at her house by the hired chefs. She hadn't had such a common dish out side of her house before and this was her first time in this place.

Finally getting a hold of herself and mentally berating herself for questioning the quality of the food without even having any, she quickly deposited the noodles that were held by her chopsticks into her mouth and was surprised at the great taste. Never had the ramen she was served at home this good. The flavour was just right, the noodles warm and sending a nice feeling through her senses every time she bit down on a strand. It wasn't as amazing as her preferred cinnamon rolls but the taste was close to comparison. Hinata Hyuuga officially had a second favourite to eat and that was Ichiraku Ramen.

The three continued to eat and converse with each other about the mundane things in the life of a shinobi. Naruto answered their questions as to how he had improved so much since his first year at the academy and how Iruka had a big hand in his development. Telina told the two how she had come to decision of becoming the greatest Kunoichi in the village and how she planned on achieving that.

Hinata was a little more subtle in her dialogues but with some coaxing from the green haired girl, the blunette surprisingly opened up quite a bit and surprised the others by telling them that her goal didn't end with becoming a strong heir and banishing the caged bird seal, but to also change the clan itself, making everyone realize that they didn't always have to have a never ending bad mood and frown all the time.

Naruto and Telina both agreed to help her see that vision of the clan come true. Small talk was the main subject for the rest of the meal as they slowly ate and continued to talk, each gaining a new sense of respect and admiration for their teammates.

Naruto was in bliss as he chomped down on the noodles with lost abandon whilst conversing with the two girls. He had always liked the taste of the stuff but this day it tasted especially good and he had to admit, he could get used to this improved taste. 'I guess it is true that things always taste better when you're eating with friends' he silently thought to himself as he quickly finished off the last of his noodles and tipped the bowl to his lips to drink the broth.

"Wow, I never thought that ramen could taste this good!" Telina happily exclaimed as she set her chopsticks down, mimicking Naruto's previous actions and greedily sipping the tasty broth and humming as it slid down her throat.

Hinata nodded at Telina's comment and nearly choked on her noodles when she looked up and saw both Naruto and Telina with their lips sealed on the rims of their bowls, sounds of slurping, indicating that the two were drinking the remaining broth from the ramen. She looked towards Naruto and noticed a small drop of broth make its way down the side of his mouth, his head tilted back, causing the small drop to make a trail half way up his jaw line and then going down to his neck. She unconsciously licked her lips, suddenly realizing just how close she was sitting to the subject of her admiration.

A thought came to her head, causing an image of her leaning towards the boy just slightly and licking the drop off his neck, slowly trailing her tongue up the same path the drop made and then ending with her lips locked with the blonde boy.

The thought had a profound effect on her as he face started to heat up, the familiar blush now gracing her features. The only difference with this blush was the cause of its appearance. Unlike the previous ones, this blush was not from embarrassment or shyness. No, this blush came for a whole different reason. This time, Hinata Hyuuga blushed because she was feeling a sensation of sort that she had never felt before. Usually the warmth would be in her face, this time it was internal, originating near the bottom of her abdomen, just below her belly button.

Confused at first at this new sense of warmth, she tried to find an answer to her question and was blown off her feet when a special lesson all the students at the academy had been given during their last year. It was the only lesson that the girls and boys were separated for, Sex Ed. Mentally going over everything that the female teacher had told her and the rest of the female population from her class, Hinata fell upon the startling, yet not so unexpected conclusion. Hinata Hyuuga was blushing because she was aroused and the reason for her arousal was sitting no more than three and a half inches from her.

Her eyes widened and she quickly turned her head back to her bowl when she saw Naruto move the bowl from his mouth, and looked at her bowl which still contained some noodles. Her blush was now more prominent than any other blush she had ever had and was trying hard to keep herself from fainting. Now would not be a good time to be going to 'la-la-land' with the chance of drowning herself in ramen broth.

"Hey Hinata, something wrong?" the boy's question knocked her out of her revere and she quickly turned her head to the left and looked at the boy, only to have the previous thought she had come rushing back to her mind, causing her to blush to deepen and the new, foreign warmth creeping into her body once again. She also noticed that he was a little more than halfway through his second bowl of ramen.

"N-Nothing's wr-wrong N-Naruto-kun, I-I was j-just thinking a-about s-something" she replied, her stutter almost as bad as when she had first asked if he wanted to eat lunch with her that fateful day it all started.

"Oh? What could that be?" Telina slyly asked from Naruto's other side.

Hinata looked over at the green haired girl and saw a Cheshire smile on her face, a mischievous glint in her eyes and silently gulped.

"Yeah, what are you thinking about? If you don't mind us asking that is" Naruto's voice brought her gaze back to him and her blush increased even more as she made eye contact with him.

"N-Nothing…" She silently replied, hoping they'd drop the topic. It was embarrassing enough to find out that you were having lewd thoughts about your crush, but having that same person questioning you about it, weather unknowingly or not was still too much for her.

"Well, if you don't want to tell us, I guess it's ok, maybe some other time?" Naruto looked at her with a hopeful expression and Hinata couldn't help but melt at the face. Not trusting her voice anymore, she slowly nodded her head in affirmative and then quickly finished off the rest of her noodles before they cooled down, using a soup spoon for the broth unlike her friends.

"It's much faster if you drink it directly from the bowl" Telina commented as she saw it would take a while to drink all that broth with a little soup spoon.

"But-" she was cut off by Naruto who agreed with the green haired girl.

"Yeah, it's much faster, and more fun. Try it. Just don't tilt the bowl too much or it might just go up your nose instead of into your mouth" She looked at the boy like he was crazy. She'd never done something so…so…unmannered in her entire life and now they were asking her to practically chug down the broth directly from the bowl?

Seeing the expectant looks on both of the other's faces, she gave in and set her spoon to the side, placing both hands on the sides of the bowl, she lifted it slowly, and making sure her grip was firm on the sides. Placing her lips on the rim, she slowly tilted the bowl upwards and opened her mouth wide, expecting a large amount of the liquid to torrent at her.

Naruto looked at Hinata as she slowly drank the broth and then looked over at Telina to his left, smiling at her, before finishing up his second bowl. By the time he finished the rest of his ramen; Hinata had finished drinking the broth and was wiping her mouth with a tissue paper.

"See, it wasn't that bad now was it?" He smiled at the blue haired girl and let out a small chuckle when he saw her blush at his remark.

"Ready to go you guys?" Telina's question caught their attention and they both nodded as they each paid for their meals with a tip for the chef and then exited the establishment, coming out into the streets.

It was noticeably later than the three had expected it to be, if the sun giving off a deep orange hue in the sky was any indication.

"Wow, time really does fly when you're having fun doesn't it?" Telina remarked as she stretched her arms high above her head and let out a light mewl as the bones in her back popped back into place and the stiffness that had settled in from sitting for so long left her. She giggled as she saw Naruto visibly flinch and make a scrunched up face at the sound.

"Eeegh, doesn't that hurt you?" Naruto asked the disturbed expression still on his face.

"Ha ha, nah, it's actually quite pleasant. Gets rid of the stiffness from my back" she happily answered him, purposely making her back pop a few more times and chuckled when she heard Hinata giggling herself as the expression on Naruto's face deepened.

'I swear I just saw him go green for a second' the green haired girl thought as she chuckled some more before bringing her arms back down to her sides.

"She's right Naruto-kun. It does help in relieving stress on the bones from time to time. I pop my back every now and then when it feels extra stiff" Hinata said as her giggles finally left her.

"I don't think I'll ever understand girls" The boy said as he placed a hand on his forehead, bending his head down and shaking it in a melancholy manner.

"And you never will" Telina replied, giggling with the blue haired girl some more before noticing that the sun had almost disappeared leaving a red glow in the sky.

"Oh wow, it's getting really late. I better get home before my mother sends out an A-rank mission to find me. See you guys tomorrow!" Telina quickly said, as she started to jog her way towards the school, living on the other side of town really left her at a disadvantage with distance.

"See ya! Be careful!" Naruto shouted at her back and got a light 'I will' in return as the girl didn't even turn to respond and continued to jog forward.

"Bye Telina-chan!" Hinata let out in the loudest voice she was comfortable using and saw the green haired girl wave over her back and the promptly pick up speed and almost sprint down the street.

After Telina's departure, Naruto turned towards the direction of the sun and noticed that only the rays were left and that the sun had already dipped past the horizon.

"Hey Hinata, which way is your place?" Naruto asked the girl and looked at her intently, waiting for her response.

"I-I go that way N-Naruto-kun" she said while she blushed from being caught off guard with the question, pointing down the street, opposite to where Telina ran off too.

"Really, cool, I go that way too. Let's go!" The boy said as he turned in the same direction her hand was pointing and started to walk, the other girl quickly catching up and falling into step beside him.

"So Hinata, what do you think of our new teacher?" Naruto said as he looked to his left at the girl before glancing back forward not wanting to collide with anyone or anything.

"I think h-he's an interesting person" she honestly said. Their new teacher wasn't anything special, but what he had shown was more than enough to even have the newly graduated student's question how he became a Jounin ninja with that laid back attitude. He'd have to be extremely skilled to make up for that weakness.

"Yeah he is interesting. He doesn't let on how good or professional he is. All we know about him is that he's a laid back Jounin who's going to be our new teacher for an undetermined amount of time when we pass the test mission tomorrow" He said as he looked back at the heiress and smiled at her, causing her to blush and duck her head, hiding her eyes from his view with the bands of her hair.

Hinata smiled at Naruto's response. 'He said 'when' we pass instead of 'if' we pass' she thought to herself as she blushed when he looked at her. The two continued to walk in a comfortable silence with Hinata sneaking the occasional glance at him every now and then and then blushing whenever he'd catch her eye before ducking her head.

It was after a little while that the two reached an intersection that Hinata had to turn right and Naruto had to continue straight down the road.

"I-I go this way N-Naruto-kun. Bye" The girl quietly said as she took a step towards her street still looking at the blonde boy.

"See ya Hinata. Remember, tomorrow at ground twelve at ten in the morning" Naruto waved to her as he smiled one of the brightest smiles Hinata had seen on his face. She was thrown for a loop and had trouble breathing for a second as blush rose to her face the fastest it had to date with an intensity to match

"I-I will. Bye" she waved to him when she regained all control of her body and mind. Stepping down into her street, she quickly took to a light jog heading for the gates of her clan house.

Naruto stood there and watched her back until he saw her stop at a gate that was a ways away from the intersection and didn't leave until he saw her enter through the gate into the safety of her clan grounds. Seeing as she was now safely home, He pushed chakra to his legs and then to his feet and propelled himself high onto the nearest roof and proceeded to jump and run all the way to his own little sanctuary, his apartment.

While jumping and running from rooftop to rooftop, Naruto thought about the things that had happened today. He thought about his two teammates, his new teacher, and most of all, he thought about the days that were to come. Seeing his apartment closing in from the distance, Naruto decided he'd test just how good he had become with his chakra control.

When he was about a two hundred yards from his apartment balcony, he pushed as much chakra as he was safe using into his feet and pushed off from the roof of a two story apartment complex, blasting himself towards his balcony with speed unimaginable, a sonic boom following his wake causing windows and wind chimes to rattle with questionable force. The force of his jump left a deep gauging impression on the tiles that covered the building he propelled himself off from, the blonde boy nothing but a flash to the naked eye.

His speed was immense to the point where he himself started to question the safety at moving so fast. The wind whipped his hair, wails echoing in his ears. His vision started to blur as the pressure that hit his body, face, and eyes increased.

The two hundred yards, which before seemed to be a distance soon became not enough as the blonde boy flew at alarming speeds towards his apartment. Naruto felt the familiar signs of adrenaline as his body released more endorphin into his system so as to keep his mind from blacking out, this simple instinct multiplied by a still unknown and semi-dormant force deep within the boy.

Naruto, his eyes squinted, looked straight at his apartment, his attention directed solely on the railing that lined the balcony. Seeing that he was now probably no more than thirty yards from the rail, he quickly pushed his arms outwards, hands open. The second he felt the cool metal against his palm, he shut his hands tight enough hold him there, but loose enough to let him spin.

Bending and tucking his legs to his chest, he thanked the gods for his lack of height as he turned into a ball and spun forward on the bar, his knees just grazing the cement of the balcony floor. He spun once, twice, and then a third time, before he quickly pushed his legs outwards when he was about to start the fourth spin. The force behind the outward thrust of his legs was enough to make him loose his grip and send him straight up into the air, perpendicular to the ground.

Naruto was feeling the familiar rush again and came to the conclusion that indeed he had become addicted to the feeling of endorphin in his body. Looking down at the ground, Naruto stretched his arms outward again, his palms facing the ground and waited for the downward decent. When his hands made contact with the cement of his balcony footing, he bent his arms and absorbed the pressure from the impact. The blonde boy was now in a complete handstand with his head touching the ground from the top of his cranium. Pushing down one last time with his hands, Naruto flipped himself into a standing position and let out a breath he'd been unconsciously holding.

Looking out at the city, Naruto saw that all of the street lights were on, the late night party goers walking through the streets heading to who knows where. His gaze swept over the numerous buildings of the civilians, shops, it finally rested on the Hokage monument. He looked at the faces of the four leaders that had looked over this city, over the people. 'I wonder if someday I'll get the chance to have my face carved up there…' the boy silently thought to himself.

He was brought out of his musing when he saw white light bathe the monument. He looked up at the sky with confusion laced in his eyes and realized that the moon had come out from behind its curtain of clouds. Smiling at the sight before him, the Hokage monument seemingly glowing as the moon shone down upon it, he walked into his little apartment through the glass screen door, stripping down to his boxers on his way to his room.

Getting rid of his pants as he reached the door to joint bathroom, he brushed his teeth and quickly brushed his hair before turning the light to his room out and sliding into bed. Pulling the covers over him, He quickly slipped into sweet slumber, one thought ringing in his head as his mind succumbed to the darkness.

'Wonder what's going to happen tomorrow…'

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Telina was going through her nightly routines as she thought about her new teammates and teacher. When she had reached home, her parents had had a small party already planned and ready for her graduating the academy and officially becoming a ninja of Konoha. She didn't have the heart to tell them that she still had a chance of going back to the academy if she failed the test mission tomorrow so she went along with it to keep her parents happy.

Sometime during the party, her uncle who had come to congratulate her had asked who was on her team. She had first told him and everyone else that her new teacher was Sarutobi Asuma to which she had received a wide smile from her father. When questioned, he simply said that he was now expecting great things from her and her teacher.

She continued to tell them who her two teammates were, starting with Hinata and again she saw everyone in the room smile even brighter.

"That's great dear. To think that you have a Hyuuga on your team and the heir to the clan no less, I'm proud of you for getting such a good teammate and teacher." Her father had excitedly said, her mother nodding in confirmation and her uncle smiling just as broadly down at her as well.

"That's nice, so who's the third teammate?" Her mother questioned a curious look on her face.

"The last person is none other than Uzumaki Naruto" She happily said, her voice going a pitch higher in happiness even she couldn't detect. Of course her parents were another story. Their facial expressions changed from happy to serious faster than she could blink at the mention of the Uzumaki boy.

"I see…so Uzumaki Naruto also passed and is on your team no less…Interesting, very interesting…" Her eyes moved to her uncle who was in his traditional thinking pose, chin resting on his hands, fingers combed together, elbows resting on the table they were all sitting at.

"There is nothing interesting about that boy Richard, if nothing; he is an interest to the local gangs and pranksters and someone my daughter could do well without seeing." Her mother commented with a sour look as her expression, her eyes staring down at her uncle with a glare that, even if it was not directed at her, sent shivers down her spine at the hostility it portrayed,

"Now, now dear let's not get the wrong idea. There's nothing wrong with him being on the same team as Telina. If anything, she could learn a few things about stealth and camouflage." Telina smiled towards her father. He had always thought about things in a positive way. Telina had been confused and curious about her mother's open dislike of the blonde boy, but had been left in the dark, the returning answers always being discreet and increasingly confusing.

"That boy has pulled some of the most ingenious pranks I have ever seen to date and has gotten away with them as well. He's already almost mastered stealth; I've heard that not even a single Anbu Black Ops had been able to catch him." Her father looked at her and smiled a wide smile before returning his attention back to the dumplings he was munching on. They had called at a restaurant and called in some delivery.

Telina's smile widened to the point of almost splitting her face in two. 'Thank you daddy! You always know what to say.' As If he'd heard her thoughts, her father turned back towards her and winked at her, while holding up a little thumbs up with the hand holding the dumpling stick. Her mind immediately registered that her father had no idea what she was thinking about and might have come to the conclusion that she had some kind of crush on the boy or something similar. A very uncharacteristic blush kept up into her cheeks and she quickly ducked her head, letting her bangs fall in front of her face to hide her embarrassment at thinking such a thing. Quickly finishing up her meal, she excused herself saying that she wanted a head start on packing for her test mission tomorrow.

"Alright dear, don't stay up too late. If you need help with anything, just ask ok?" Her father looked at her as she turned from the stairway.

"Thanks dad, I'll be ok. Night" she said as she jumped the first 3 steps and then slowly ascended the rest.

Reaching her room, she quickly went in, closed and locked the door, then threw her backpack on to her bed and started to go through all the things she'd need to the test mission tomorrow and back up supplies as well. It took a while but in the end, she had everything packed and was sure that she hadn't forgotten a single thing. Going over the list 3 times before being satisfied, she packed her bag and set it by her room entrance.

Walking into the washroom with a pair of fresh pyjamas and a towel, Telina took a quick shower; blow dried her hair and brushed it before tucking herself in for sleep. Right as her eyes closed and she fell into the throws of slumber, her door silently opened, a figure walking into the room and standing next to her bed. Telina shuffled a bit in her sheet and turned to face the figure in her sleep, a single name being uttered which caused the figure to freeze in its position, a hand outstretched, reaching for her. Without a sound, the figure silently stepped back to the door and out of her room, the name still ringing strongly in the persons mind.

"N…Naruto…"

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Hinata was on cloud nine as she stepped into her clan compound and made her way to her room. Along the way, she bumped into her little sister who looked at her in a weird way, not used to seeing her older sister in such a happy mood. Hinata wasn't really caring about what other people were thinking right now. She just had one of the best days of her life.

"Hi Hanabi!" Hinata happily exclaimed as she saw her sister come from around the corner.

"Hello…sister…" Hanabi's lack of enthusiasm in her response was neither noticed nor cared for by the recipient as Hinata continued to glow as she made her way past Hanabi and around the corner in the opposite direction the younger girl had come from.

'What's gotten into her?' the child thought to herself as she made her way to the clan bathhouse.

'I can't believe Naruto-kun walked me almost all the way home today! I can't wait for tomorrow, maybe he'll walk me all the way home.' Hinata happily thought as she entered her room and closed the door behind her, locking it as an afterthought. Seeing that everything was in order, she looked her door knob and saw the familiar seal that was engraved into the wood. It was a seal that was put on every main house member's door. It prevented the Byakugan from seeing through the walls. It still allowed for a person to see the chakra points of whoever was behind the walls but prevented the bloodline user from seeing who it was.

Activating the seal, she quickly walked over to her window and locked the door, pulling the curtains to cover the glass. Turning on the lamp on her bed side table, Hinata started to strip down to her underwear as she walked towards her walk in closet. Pulling out her favourite pair of pyjamas that were covered in orchid petals, she grabbed a towel and entered her bathroom for a nice soak in the tub. Striping down to her birthday suit, she relaxed her muscles as she entered the hot water which filled her quite big sized bathtub, she let her mind wander to all the things that happened during the day.

Her mind began to call up how Naruto had reacted to her being on his team. He had smiled down at her, then promptly grabbed her hand and practically hauled her up to where he and Telina were sitting. The thought of Telina brought an unfamiliar feeling in the girl's chest. She hadn't ever felt like this before. It was dark sensation, almost painful to a sense and it made her want to hide Naruto from the green haired girl.

Her eyes widened as she realized that she was feeling jealousy. Hinata Hyuuga had, for the first time in her life, felt jealous over something and it was Naruto. She thought it through countless times and tried to get rid of the awful feeling that had planted itself deep within her chest. It was tangible, almost like she could touch it, yet afraid to go near the foreign emotion. Her turmoil only increased as images of Naruto as he was smiling at Telina, the two holding hands and walking away from her flashed through her mind.

Shaking her head violently, she busied herself with cleaning herself up. After a few minutes of soaking in the bathtub, she drained it and stepped into her shower. Soaping her pale skin, and then shampooing her hair, she quickly finished up her shower and stepped out of the washroom. A large towel wrapped around her body, she used a smaller one to dry her hair. Getting into her pyjamas, Hinata stepped towards her bed and was about to pull the covers back when a knock on her door stopped her.

"Hinata, are you in there?" It was her father.

"Yes father…" She replied, thinking as to why her father would be at her bedroom door at around ten at night.

"May I come in?" The question had her senses on high alert. Her father never asked if he could enter.

"O-Of course" she hesitantly replied, her confusion slowly growing.

She turned around and sat on her bed, as her father stepped into the room and then closed the door behind her. He stood at the door, looking at her for a few seconds before speaking.

"Hinata, I'm here to ask how you're team placement went" He said, his voice as stoic as it had ever been.

"Oh…w-well, my new t-teammates are a girl n-named Telina Sphinale, and a boy, U-Uzumaki Naruto" She quietly replied.

Her father's eyes grew wide, barely at the mention of Naruto but then narrowed slightly, almost impossible to notice.

"I see, so that Uzumaki boy is on your team. Who's your teacher?" His eyes returned to normal and Hinata silently let out a breath she had been holding.

"O-Our new teacher is S-Sarutobi Asuma" She replied. Her father's eyes once again widened but then settled down.

The blue haired girl was now more perplexed than ever before. Her father was acting more out of character than he had ever before. Never had he taken any interest in her ninja life after she had been sent to the academy so why the sudden questions?

"Anything else?" his demeanour was once again concealed, no emotions on his face. The stone cold persona that the Hyuuga were famous for held true to its fame.

"Y-Yes, Our teacher is g-giving us a test mission t-tomorrow to see if we are efficient at b-being Genin, otherwise who ever fails will be s-sent back to the academy for another y-year." She silently cursed her stuttering. Out of everyone that could have ended up stuttering from the clan, it had to be her. She looked at her father and saw him take on a thinking expression but blinked for it had disappeared as soon as it had appeared.

"Hinata…I want you to inform me about how your teammates are and what kind of things you do with your teacher. Can I expect you to not disappoint me in this?" His stern glare had her nodding her head in an instance, not trusting her voice.

"Alright, you may go to sleep. I also expect you to do well in your test tomorrow." With that said Hiashi nodded his head at her affirmative and then quickly left the room.

The odd encounter with her father left Hinata's mind in a whirl of thoughts and possibilities, each one ending with her either disappointing him in the test tomorrow or failing to prove herself as the next heir to the clan. The troubled thoughts stayed with her as she turned around and pulled back the covers to her large bed.

'Why would father show such interest in my team placement and teammates?' the young heir questioned to herself as she slid under the blanket.

"Well, at least I'm on the same team as Naruto-kun. That's good enough for me.' The blue capped girl thought as a faint blush appeared on her cheeks. No matter how much she tried, the boy always made her blood rush, and she wasn't complaining.

"Naruto…"

Her eyes slowly drooping and her mind losing all trace of thought, Hinata let out one last sigh, whispering a name she whispered every night before the darkness surrounding her vision completely took over, quickly snatching the girl away to the land of dreams.

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	4. Chapter 4

Hey guys! I've know, I know. Been forever since I last updated. I wouldn't be surprised if a whole bunch of you were pissed off and a little annoyed that I hadn't updated this story in a long, long time. 9 months I know is a really, really, really long time to not work on something. There are reasons, for one, University. I'm sure to all of you who are going to university, you can understand how much of a rush and chaos it can create getting everything ready and then moving to campus and all that jazz. But I've finally settled in and since I had the time now, I sat down, read what I had written already for this fic and wrote onwards. I'm going to be alternating between updates of this and my other fic 'Forbidden Fruit' and the updates are going to be spaced out. Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the fourth installment to Beauty is in the Eye.

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**Beauty is in the Eye…**

Chapter 4

The sun was shining brightly outside, the rays strong enough to travel the distance, penetrating the Earth's atmosphere and raining down on the inhabitants of the planet, warming their skin, fur, hide, which ever it may be, the bright light instilling the ground with warmth that would last for as long as the sun shone. These rays made by a giant fireball of immense proportions, dwarfing the small planet in size, an every lasting chaotic inferno of heat, an infinite torch. Ironic isn't it that this very embodiment of continuous chaos and rage could bring such peace and tranquility to mornings such as this.

However, peace and tranquility only last for so long, and as such, the mornings quiet serene state was shattered into a million shards of sharp crystal as a cry broke throughout the village hidden in the leaf.

"I'M LATE!" Naruto cried out in utter panic as he realized that he was 20 minutes late for the first meeting of his new team.

Naruto had gone to sleep really easily the night before despite the fact that he was so excited about the test mission. Getting home, he had done his nightly routine and then went to bed, falling asleep the second his head hit the pillow. He hadn't planned on sleeping in, no not in the least, he had hoped to wake up a good 40 minutes before the meeting time, get in a good breakfast and then take his time heading to training ground 12 since it was only a 5 minute walk the short way from his place to the ground.

The reason for his un intended sleep in was simple and it was that he had been having a very, very good dream that he hadn't wanted to wake up from.

Naruto quickly slipped on his sandals with his right hand while putting on his jacket with his right, the fact that he retained his balance while doing this was an amazing feat that for some people would have taken years to perfect. Fortunately, or unfortunately for him, depending on how you look at it, Naruto had been late many a days in the morning arriving to the academy so he had practically three years of practice. Quickly slipping on his jacket and making sure that his sandals were closed as well as his headband being secure on his left bicep, Naruto ran out of his apartment, locking the door with his left hand as he used his right hand to tie on the Kunai pouch on to his left leg. When he was sure that it was secure, he jumped to the roof of the apartment complex from the landing, and took to a running start before jumping from roof top to roof top.

"Stupid dreams….honestly, what the hell was that…." The young blonde muttered to himself as he jumped to the roof of a high building. He blushed a brilliant red as the entire dream flashed through his memory.

It was the morning of the mission test and he was peacefully sleeping in his warm bed, covered by a thin blanket. He heard a distinct sound, similar to a knock on a door and thought for a second that someone was at his door. He quickly scrapped that idea because the only one that knew where he lived was Iruka-sensei, and since he had already graduated from the academy Iruka would expect him to be at his team meeting hence no one would be home. Setting his mind with that conclusion, Naruto slept on, ignoring the knocking sound as he heard it again a third time.

Being three quarters asleep does have it advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that you were still somewhat aware of your surroundings and could still move your body, only slightly however. The disadvantages however grossly outnumbered the advantages starting with the fact that you were similar to a zombie, being very sluggish in movement or not moving at all. Another disadvantage was that you could sort of see things, hear things and still have smell and touch, but your brain would be so slow in it's instinctual thinking that you'd be hit almost a minute before your brain actually came to the conclusion that you were hit.

Naruto's extremely drowsy state didn't change, even after he heard what seemed like his front door open, he didn't respond to the two sets of footsteps that echoed throughout his quiet apartment complex. His eyes only slightly cracked open as he heard the door to his room open and then some shuffling. He forced his eyes to open a little more as he heard his door shut and then what sounded like the lock close. He saw two blurry images making their way from the entrance to his room to his bed and his senses went into high alert as he pretended to sleep, closing his eyes once again.

He calmed his breath down and made the act of sleep as believable as possible, fortunate for him, the two figures didn't suspect a thing. He heard the footsteps come closer to his bed and stop, one on either side of him. He was about to spring into action, reaching under his pillow for the hidden kunai and going ninja on the two but their next words stopped him.

"He looks so peaceful…doesn't he" That voice, he had heard it before and it was very clear who it was.

'Telina! What the hell is she doing in here? How did she find out about where I live?' Naruto thought to himself, ready to sit up and question his friend turned trespasser.

"He does, doesn't he Telina-chan…how about we join him?" Naruto's eyes almost snapped open when he recognized Hinata's voice but what she had asked her 'partner in crime' had him frozen in shock.

"Didn't have to tell me twice" and before he knew it, he heard two quick sounds of clothes shuffling and felt two bodies press up against him on either side in a matter of seconds.

'Ahhhhhh' he screamed, but it was only in his head. His mouth refused to move, his voice disobeyed him and when he tried to move his arms, he found that each of the girls had wrapped their arms around each of his arms, hugging it close to their bodies. Naruto's face burned when he realized just how tight they were hugging his arms to their chests.

'Oh my god...they'll kill me if they find out I'm awake..Hey…hold on just a second here…they come into my house, bust into my room and then lay down in my bed practically smothering me, what the hell!' he silently screamed in his mind. He opened his eyes and was surprised to see that Telina was looking right at him as well as Hinata, both having blushes on their faces, the latter having one that was more prominent that the other's.

The he felt something sliding up both his legs and felt jolts going up from his legs to his chest, then to his brain and then back down to his chest, traveling all the way down to the place where the sun never shines. His embarrassment only grew when what ever it was that was sliding up his leg came into contact with his member. He was soundly shocked into almost permanent surprise when he felt the same feeling again, only this time it was on the opposite leg. The sensations that he was feeling, he soon realized were those of arousal and he was having a hell of a lot of trouble trying to think straight.

Naruto shook his head to rid the rest of the image. He didn't know what the hell that dream was about, or what it meant, but whatever it was, it certainly had gone to a much more mature state after that part. He looked back out from on top of the building and was surprised that he could see the grounds from here. He saw a trio of dots, all different colours, one a whitish colour, another was a bluish hue and the last was a reddish colour.

'Shoot, they're already there…hope I don't get into much trouble for being late…damn it I gotta get a new alarm clock and soon.' With that last though, Naruto took a giant leap and completely jumped over the next building landing on the next one ahead, and kept up the pace until he neared the last building that lined the clearing for the training area.

Reaching the edge of the last building, Naruto pushed a little bit of chakra into his legs and propelled himself the last 300 feet from the four story building, landing just over twenty feet from his teammates and new teacher. He locked his knees and ankles and skid another five feet forward before stopping. He placed his hands on his knees, slightly bent over trying to catch his breath, having used more energy in that one run without warming up had caused him to use up more energy to get his muscles loosened while being put under stress.

Looking up, Naruto smiled at the shocked expressions everyone was showing him. He also noticed that both girls had changed their style of dressing. Where Telina used to wear her tight ninja pants and her emerald coloured Chinese top, she now wore a semi tight dark red t-shirt that had shuriken drawn onto the side of the shoulders and one in the center of the back. He also noticed that she was wearing a dark red, almost black skirt that just came to her knees and instead of her usual green sandals, she had black ones on, her headband was still where it had been before around her neck.

Hinata's clothes had changed quite a bit as well. She had not worn her usual jacket, instead she wore a semi tight shirt like Telina's, only hers was the same colour as her previous jacket. Instead of the usual pants, she had replaced them with black shorts that came to just a bit lower than her knees, her kunai holster still tied in its usual place on her left thigh, her headband around her neck and around her waist a small mini skirt was worn over the shorts. Her sandals had also changed, these ones being less bulky like the last ones and having a thinner grip on the bottom to allow the sandals to bend more freely offering more dexterity to the wearer.

Hinata's mouth was wide open and when his eyes met hers, he sent her a smile. The reaction was immediate as a blush hit her face and she ducked her head but was still looking at him through her bangs. Naruto couldn't help but think that the heiress looked really cute like that. His gaze left the blunette and came to meet the hazel eyes of Telina and he smiled at her as well, only her reaction was the exact opposite of Hinata's.

"Oh my god! That was amazing! How the heck can you jump nearly 300 feet and still be standing like it was nothing?" the girls loud question and strong gaze made the boy blush lightly, never having being paid this much attention from a girl.

"Heh heh…I don't know, all I know is that it was fun." Naruto replied while rubbing the back of his head with his right hand.

He looked back towards Hinata and saw that she had come out of her blushing phase and was looking at him with the same wonder and confusion that Telina was. All three were soundly broken form their thoughts by the sound of someone coughing. All three turned around to see Asuma holding his lit cigarette in his left hand, his right hand in a loose fist in front of his mouth and him bent over coughing so hard, they were almost afraid one of his lungs were going to suddenly fall out.

"coughcough Sorry bout that…cough I don't usually cough that much, this is a cough first." He continued to cough a bit more, lightly this time.

Hinata, Naruto and Telina however were a little scared from the sudden burst of coughing and hacking their new teacher was doing and looked at each other with skeptical expressions. Naruto looked first towards Telina and then at Hinata, seeing worry in both eyes and decided that he would have to be the one to ask and make sure their new teacher wasn't going to die on them anytime soon. He still wanted to get to know the man better and learn some cool stuff.

"Are you sure you're ok? That cough didn't sound too good."

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Anyway, care to explain why you were almost 20 minutes late today?" Asuma questioned the blonde boy.

"Ha ha…well you see...I was kinda…" at his pause, he looked over at Hinata and Telina and before he could stop himself, a brilliantly bright blush spread across his face in a matter of seconds. He quickly looked away from the two girls and then back at Asuma, seeing an expectant look in his eyes.

"Well you see…I slept in." he hadn't meant to, but it wouldn't matter telling them about that now, he was late and had to accept that fact.

"Well, it's a good thing I told you guys to come here around this time. All of the other jounin changed their testing dates to today so we don't have to worry about getting there any time soon, but that doesn't mean you can slack off. Punctuality and correct timing can make or break many things. Businesses, nations, especially to ninja, they can cost lives." His last remark had all three genin surprised and shocked and that's exactly how he intended them to be for this mission. He needed them to understand the seriousness of the profession they had chosen, to come to terms with the sacrifices they would have to make in the near future if they wanted themselves and each other to live.

"Alright, now that that's over with, it's time to go. The Hokage tower is exactly 2 and half kilometers from here. I'm going to test how much stamina you guys have, think of it as a race. The first one there will get first say on what kind of mission we'll do if you pass the test. Alright, I'll meet you there" and with that, Asuma disappeared in a small puff of smoke.

"Aww that's no fair, he didn't even say start!" Naruto whined as he looked at where the tower was then turned back towards his two female teammates, his blush coming back, not as strong as before but still there as the images from his dream flashed in his head.

"Alright girls, lets go!" he quickly exclaimed and then ran off in the direction of the tower, fully intent on making it there before his female teammates. He replayed Asuma's words in his head and came to the realization that he didn't say it had to be just the three genin. Out of all of them, the first one there would be the one to have first say, weather it be adult or kid. When he came to that conclusion, he stopped his running, skidding to a halt on the ground and turned to look behind himself, only to be barreled over as both Hinata and Telina came crashing into him, his sudden stop being unexpected by both parties.

All three rolled and tumbled on the ground for a few seconds and then came to a stop with Naruto in the middle, his arms spread out to his sides and his legs slightly apart. He had the wind knocked out of him as he felt something impact with his chest and when he opened his eyes, he was rewarded with a nice view of Telina's undergarments. 'Wow, I didn't know Telina liked to wear lacey panties' and with that comment, a ferocious blush broke out on the boys face as the dream from last night came back to him.

The images from his dream and the view he was receiving was too much for his still maturing mind and within a few seconds, Naruto had done something he hadn't done since his first week of training, he fainted.

Right in between Naruto's legs was Hinata who had crashed into him first knocking him back. She had stopped rolling and landed right in between his legs, her face just centimeters from a certain area of the male anatomy that defined the gender. When she looked up, her eyes widened as she realized just where her face was situated and who the person was. Her face took on an unhealthy shade of red before she passed out from the heat rush to her head.

Telina had bumped into Hinata's back, adding more force into the hit with Naruto, sending the boy back even farther and herself flipping into the air, only to land on her butt on his chest directly in front of his face, her legs on either side of his head. She moaned a bit in pain as her rear throbbed a bit and when she went to rub it, she realized that there was something soft and warm under her. Opening her eyes, Telina blushed three shades of red when she saw just who she had landed on and in what position. Seeing Naruto looking right at her, not in the face but right at her 'there' sent a jolt of something throughout her entire body and when she looked at his face and saw the blush he had, heat started to build up inside her.

When she saw the boy's head fall back onto the ground as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, she quickly came to her sense and was up and standing in the blink of an eye, dusting herself off and blushing madly all the while. She looked down and her blush increased when she saw where Hinata had landed.

'Man…that must really suck…' The double meaning came to her only a second later and her blush increased in intensity as she shook her head to rid it of such thoughts.

Mentally sighing and relaxing herself, Telina went to work waking up Naruto first so they could move him before waking up Hinata. Who knew how the girl would react if she was to wake up and see that sight a second time. Kneeling next to the blonde boy, Telina reached out and was about to shake his shoulder to wake him when the boy in question opened his eyes and looked up at her. Telina looked right into his blue eyes realized that she could get lost in them. She saw his eyes widen and then a blush creep on to his face and she blushed in unison, both from embarrassment.

"I dunno bout you, but the ground can't be that comfortable" Telina said to Naruto as she stood up and brushed the dirt off her knees before offering her right hand to him.

"Careful, Hinata is still unconscious." She told him as she pointed towards the girl with her left hand.

Naruto looked at her in a confused expression and then followed the direction her finger was pointing in. What he saw gave him a little nosebleed and in a split second, he was a good ten meters from the girl, back against a nearby building, and his left hand in front of his nose to hide his embarrassment.

"Yeah, just leave her face down in the ground Naruto, real heroic" Telina snorted towards his direction.

She couldn't blame him though; any growing boy would be embarrassed and have a nose bleed if they had any girls head 'that' close to a certain part of their body. Giggling as she heard Naruto muttering something about crazy girls and their bad fainting habits, she went over to the still blacked out Hyuuga and turned her over on to her back. Shaking her shoulder lightly, Telina softly called to the blunette until she saw her eyes slowly start to open.

"Hinata…Hinata…….Hinata…." she heard her name being called and she started to open her eyes, blinking them as light flashed into them suddenly. Her eyes slowly started to adjust to the bright light, still a bit blurry, a shadow looming over her. She squinted so she could see who the shadow belonged to, the silhouette being framed by the bright light from the sun.

"Hinata…you ok?" She recognized the voice as Telina's and then the memory of what caused her to faint in the first place came to her. Bolting up, almost head butting the other girl in the process, Hinata was sitting up, blinking owlishly at the green haired girl and then turned her head looking around for their missing teammate.

"Telina-chan…where's Naruto-kun?" She asked as she continued to look around, seeing no sign of the said boy in question.

"ha ha…funny you should ask…he's right over there" Telina replied, a light blush coming to her cheeks as she looked up at the boy in question, pointing in his direction at the same time.

Hinata looked over in the direction that Telina pointed in, slowly turning her head, hoping with all hope that the boy wasn't there, knowing that if he was and if he was looking at her, she would no doubt die from embarrassment. Her eyes finally fell upon the blonde boy and she blushed as the events from the previous moments came back to her. Getting a hold on herself and putting most of her concentration on not fainting, Hinata got up with some help from Telina and dusted herself off before turning once again towards the green haired girl.

Hinata saw a light blush on Telina's cheeks and was confused as to what she was blushing about, but the confusion was blown out the window in an instance when she followed her line of sight. Understanding soon dawned on the blunette as she saw that the object of her affection was also the object of her female teammate's attention. A sudden flash of the dark feeling that she had named jealousy ripped through her being and her eyes narrowed unconsciously at the other girl. As soon as the feeling had come, it was gone and Hinata was left confused from the sudden appearance and scared because of the intensity it had come with.

"Come on Telina-chan, we shouldn't keep Asuma-sensei waiting or he'll get angry." Hinata replied after shaking her head and collecting herself, the jolt of jealousy really doing a number on her emotions.

"Yeah, we should. Come on Naruto or we're gonna get into trouble" A small jolt of jealousy went through Hinata's system when she heard Telina address Naruto in such an informal manner, but forcibly shrugged it off, giving it no importance.

"Ok lets go" The blonde boy said as he looked at the two girl through the corner of his eyes before quickly taking off, hiding he blush that had appeared on his face. 'Jeebuz…I don't think I'll ever be able to forget this day…ever…' he silently thought as he jumped to he roof of the nearest building and quickly took off towards the Hokage tower, the other two girls right behind him, exact thoughts going through their heads as well.

Arriving at the Hokage tower, the three swiftly made their way into the Hokage tower, moving at a brisk pace and stopped outside the mission assignment room. They were greeted with the image of Asuma leaning against the wall, a cigarette loosely hanging from his slightly parted lips. His eyes were half lidded, showing that he was either almost falling asleep or really, really deep in thought.

The three made their way to the adult ninja and it was Naruto who made their presence known…quite loudly.

"HEY ASUMA SENSEI! WE'RE HERE!" the blonde exclaimed in a single breath, with the loudest voice he could muster.

"Bloody Hell!" Asuma's reaction was immediate as he almost jumped off the ground, his cigarette falling out of his mouth and landing on the ground. He turned towards the three graduates and was about to scold them for one taking so long and two scaring him when he was in deep thought but stopped himself when he saw the expressions on the three kids.

Naruto's expression was one of anxiousness, impatience almost, that was a bit out of the norm for the blonde but none the less still very normal compared to the other two. Hinata's face was in, what he named, tomato state. Being red enough to pass as ketchup, weather it was healthy or not, he wasn't sure. Telina's expression was the oddest out of all three. She had a very distinct blush on her cheeks and her head was a bit downcast, her posture simply screaming timid. From what he had seen the day before, she was one to speak out and let her thoughts be known rather than be shy and conserved. He also noticed that both girls weren't looking at him, even if both heads were bowed, he saw that both pair of eyes were directed at the blonde boy who was looking at him expectantly.

"So mind telling me what took you guy so long?" Asuma's facial expression showed anger, but inside he was calculating and analyzing their reactions, answers and expressions to get a good insight as to what he would have to expect from the three in future and weather they were worth his time or not.

"uh..ha ha…funny you should ask that, we got into a little accident on our way her, nothing serious. Just a little tumble heh…hah…he" Naruto nervously replied to the older male.

"Interesting…mind telling me what actually happened?" Asuma questioned with an accusing voice, not really convinced with the shaky reason Naruto just said.

Asuma gauged the reactions from the three kids. Two of the reactions were normal, Hinata blushing and Telina looking off to the side, a clear blush on her cheeks as well. Naruto's expression was the most out of character though. From he had been told by Iruka, in a situation like this one, Naruto would have jumped at being called a liar and would have tried to prove his innocence. However that was not the case in this matter. No, Naruto had an expression on his face that clearly showed annoyance and that was further proved by his next words and the tone in which he said them in.

"Don't worry about it, it's nothing important, now if you don't mind, I'd like to start my test as soon as possible. The sooner I start, the sooner I can pass" and with that said, the blonde boy brushed past Asuma and went into the mission assignment room, not even sparing the smoking man a single backwards glance, only looking at his two teammates and then continuing on his way inside.

Asuma was a little more than shocked at the no bullshit attitude Naruto had just shown towards him and was about to say something to the boy when he was interrupted by Telina.

"Don't worry Asuma sensei. He's telling the truth, nothing important." And with that, the green haired girl walked past him, quickly trailed by the blunette, her quiet words reaching his ears, weather it was intentional or not.

"Naruto-kun never lies"

Asuma, at first was annoyed at the kids taking so much time to reach the tower. Then he was shocked by Naruto's flippant attitude, and then after Telina and Hinata's replies, he felt a sense of pride coming from his pupils. They had all just passed the first part of the test without even knowing it. Teamwork for him was a must. Strength in numbers, that phrase had never lied to anyone, weather they be ninja or normal civilians.

A smile came to the bearded man's face as he tailed the three graduates into the mission room, bowing slightly towards the Hokage. His smile widened a bit more when he noticed out of the corner of his eyes Telina, Naruto and Hinata mimicking his actions.

"Ah...Asuma…Your team has passed their test I'm assuming?" Sarutobi asked with a slight smile.

"Actually Hokage-sama, I still have to test them" Asuma politely answered. Sarutobi's only reaction was to raise his right eyebrow in confusion.

"May I ask as to why you are here and not testing them Asuma?"

"I've changed up my testing slightly. Instead of the usual survival or retrieval testing that the other jounin teachers are doing, I've decided to test them using an actual mission, if that's ok with you."

Asuma's voice held a slight hint of anxiousness which Sarutobi picked up on faster than anyone else. Being the Hokage meant that you had to be able to tell what a person was really saying by the tone in their voices, the posture their body was in and how their eyes moved and Sarutobi was known for his sound judgments for the political benefit of Konoha.

"Very well then, proceed as you may, I assume you'll need a C-rank mission for the test?" Sarutobi said with a smile on his face, enjoying the looks of shock on the three graduates.

"Yes Hokage-sama. A C-rank mission will do just fine." Asuma was glad that he had been offered a C-rank mission rather than having to ask for one. It made things a whole lot easier for him in the long run.

"A-a C-rank mission?" Hinata's voice cut through both Telina's and Naruto's shock induced states and they both turned towards her, all three sharing the same wide eyed look.

Coming into the mission room, Naruto wasn't very happy. His scowl was in place as he glared holes at the wall behind the Hokage and the other ninja that were present sitting behind the long table covered in a green cloth.

'He thought I was lying, heh and I'm supposed to trust him with my life when he doesn't even trust me?' Naruto was silently sulking, although no one could see it on the outside, he was in deep thought about weather or not he'd be able to work with their sensei now.

First impressions were the only impressions to him. Yesterday he didn't have enough time or contact to come to an opinion on Asuma, other than that he was an interesting man that apparently liked to smoke.

'And if the rest of him is like what I've seen so far…I doubt it'll work out for me, provided the other two do get along with him' Naruto's silent thoughts were interrupted when he felt a light tap on his shoulder, courtesy of Telina and then promptly shattered when he heard what level mission they had just been given.

He wasn't an idiot; no he was far from that. He was also aware of the fact that many graduate hopefuls that had thought they were ready for harder missions often ended up either badly injured, or rethinking their career when a mission they weren't prepared for was given to them.

"A-a C-rank mission?" he looked over at Hinata with wide eyes and saw her look back at him with the same expression. His eyes slowly returned to their normal size, then began to narrow as he began to think seriously on their situation. Sure he had improved a lot in the last few weeks than he had normally due to the increase in intensity from his training but he wasn't about to put himself or his friends in harms way just for a stupid test, mission or not.

Looking over to his teammates and then at Asuma who was discussing the details of the mission with the Hokage, Naruto's next words left everyone silent.

"With all due respect, I appreciate you going out of your way for such a test Asuma-sensei, but I refuse to put my teammates, or myself in any danger until we are sure that our level of skill and ability will allow us to complete a mission with minimal repercussions" Naruto stepped forward and respectfully bowed, first to the Hokage and everyone behind the desk, and then to his teacher before turning to his teammates.

"Sorry girls...I just won't risk it" the blonde boy said, his head slightly downcast, his body language showing that he was genuinely sorry.

"Well now...what do you think? Hinata? Telina?" Asuma's voice brought the two girls out of their suprise induced stupor at hearing the boys words and looked at their new teacher.

Telina at first hearing Naruto's words was a little upset that he thought they weren't good enough for such a thing, but after he had finished talking, she could understand where he was coming from. She, herself wouldn't want neither Naruto or Hinata hurt if she could help it. Looking up towards their teacher when he had asked her and Hinata his question, she turned back towards their blonde companion and gave her answer.

"I think...no I'm sure of it...I agree with Naruto. I wouldn't want any of my my team mates hurt if I can help it and if you ask me, if any of us go into a mission with doubts, it would only be a seed for trouble on the actual mission." There, she had said it and now it all depended on what their new teacher and the Hokage thought. Looking over at Hinata, she saw the girl was looking at her with something akin to admiration and a little bit of happiness.

"I agree with Telina-chan and Naruto-kun. As much as I'd like to go on a C-rank mission as my first one, knowing our capabilities and limits is very important." Hinata's voice held more conviction and confidence than either Naruto or Telina had ever heard come from her and they were silently amazed that she had been able to say all that with so many people in the same room. Her usual confidence in their presences was understandable because she had known them for so long and was comforatable around them, but this new confidence that was strong enough to voice her opinion infront of so many had really floored both Telina and Naruto.

"Well now, isn't that something..." All three youngersters turned towards Asuma and looked at him with confused and expectant looks.

"You see, the test in actuallity wasn't a real C-Rank mission." Asuma looked at the surprised, and dunbfound looks with a slight smile.

"The 'mission' was just a way to see how well you three would be able to agree to things together, work as a team and be able to one, support a unanimus decision even if it meant going against your personal opinion, two, backing up one another without knowing what lay ahead, putting yourself out on that limb even when the consecuence could be dangerous, and three, being able to work together in any situation and knowing when to stop. It's all right to try and do more than necessary but knowing your limits is very important." Asuma concluded with a sage like appearance and air around him. He peeked through one of his eyes and was pleased to see the Hokage looking at his three charges with both pride and admiration.

Naruto had his eye wide open and his jaw slightly hanging. 'what the hell just happened?' the silent question was clearly displayed in his eyes as he looked at his other two teammates and then back towards their teacher. Telina was in the same position, eyes wide, jaw loose. Hinata was a bit better off with just her eyes wide. The silence that followed Asuma's little speech and explanation was broken when the Hokage let out a cough to bring all attention towards him.

"I'm sure all three of you have your questions and before you ask, I'd like for you to hold them as I explain the situation in which you are in now." After he received three nods from the new genins, Sarutobi continued.

"You see, like I'm sure Asuma has already explained to you. Your time at the academy is sort of like a preperation time, to properly prepare you with the skills you need to be apt and effective ninja. The test your Jounin sensei's put you through is to see if you are able to use the skills and abilities you gained in the academy effectivly. To see if you had the knnowledge of when and where to use those skills rather than just how to use them." Pausing to let that bit sink in, Sarutobi continued.

"Now, the test that Asuma had planned for you was to see how well you knew your limits, weather you had the self discipline to agree to a unanimus decision and weather or not you would support not just yourself but your other teammates in those decisions, even if you disagree with them personally." Sarutobi let out another pause as he took a puff from his pipe. Looking at the three genins, he saw understand come to their eyes and was glad that while so young, they still understood despite the lack of experiance.

"Now that you all understand what kind of personal character traits a ninja needs to be able to work effectively in the field, I'm glad to say that the display of support and knowledge of your limits in our previous conversation leaves me to think that you three are indeed well equipped to start your careers." At the surprised looks on the three youngsters, Sarutobi let out a chuckle and looked towards Asuma only to see the Jounin with a slight nervous and apprehensive look in his eyes.

"Wait! You mean, we're official genin now?" Naruto's question brought the Hokage's eyes back to him and he saw a smile on the old mans face.

"Yes Naruto. You and your team have displayed all three of the aspects I just explained to you when you refused to go on a mission that would have asked for abilities and skills, as well as experiance that you three did not have. Knowing you limits is very important in the ninja world because a ninja that doesn't know their limits tends to be a dead ninja when they are overwhelmed." Sarutobi was a little sad to bring such a topic to the front on such a congratulatory moment but the truth was as he had said and the sooner the three were aware of that truth, the easier he could live knowing that he had a hand in having three less deaths due to ignorance.

"So...does that mean we get to go on actual missions now?" The old man turned towards the green haired girl and smiled at her from his seat. It seemed that all of Naruto's teammates were confident and most very strong. Many of the other genins that had come in earlier and later yesterday had had stutters, even minute, in their speech when they were addressing him or anyone else in the room. His position and power had that effect. Now seeing that not only did none of these three stuttered but infact expressed their curiosity without restraint had him smiling and happy to know that he wasn't scaring everyone.

"Yes it does Miss.Sphinale. Asuma, why don't you go look through these and decide on something" Sarutobi said as he handed Asuma a stack of folders.

Sifting through the small stack, Asuma was curiously stealing glances at his three charges as they silently conversed with one another. His eyes caught a specific picture on the top of the folder and the grin the split accross his face had the Hokage both smile curiously at first, but then a mischevious smile came to the old mans face as well when Asuma showed him the mission he had chosen for them.

"This one will do Hokage-Sama." His voice cought the attention of all three genins and they turned towards him with shameless curiosity in them.

"What's our mission?" Asuma looked at Telina and his grin widened, threatening to split his face in two.

"It's a special mission. One that takes dedication, skill, stealth, speed, power, and finesse." he chanced a glance at Naruto and he wasn't dissapointed to see the blonde almost foam at the mouth. He might be mannered and diciplined and one of the best students the academy had let out this year, but he was still a kid, and like all kids, flashy things catch their attention.

"What is it? what is it? what is it? what is it?" Naruto's eager question had the man's eyes twinkleing in mischeif.

"We are on a search and retrieve mission. it will be dangerous, it will be tasking, and at times you'll wish you had never gotten this mission" He looked towards the three girls and saw that Telina was looking at him with eyes that screamed excitement and Hinata's were shining with curiosity.

"What? What? What?" His eyes flicked back towards Naruto and he just couldn't help but let the final bomb dop.

"We must search for...Tora"

* * *

Well, what do you think? tell me. Bad, good, okay, so so, not what you expected, lacking, plain. Whatever it may be. Input from readers is very much the feul that I need to put into the car which types all this stuff out. Don't got no feul, we aint gonna get anywhere. Anyway, if you want to know the reasons as to why i hadn't updated in forever, send me a pm and I'll explain the reasons. Honestly, after you understand and know what they are, you won't hold it against me. Anyway. Tell me what you think.

This is AnimeMaster168 Signing off for tonight.


	5. HWHAT?

Hello everyone.

Now I know a lot of you are probably cussing my name right now for taking so long to get any kind of word out for this story and

since it's been so long, I'll give you all an explanation. Back, in my home country, we had a little passing away. Well, it was more than just a little,

but as it stands, my family is now short 3 members from last september. Put that together with college starting up and my computer dieing me

at the worst possible moment and you have a recipe for a lot of time ate up before you even thought about looking at your watch.

Fret not though my loyal readers for I have come back with a vengance and will not rest until I have completed this story.

The good thing about all this is that I now have a million and one ideas as to where this story is going to go and a pretty good

outline for the next couple of chapters. You'll all have to excuse my chapter lengths though. 10 000 word chapters are not an easy thing to create

and those of you who have tried know how it's like. I'll stick close though, near the 8 to 9 k word count. some might be longer, some might be shorter.

It all depends on what's happening and weather or not I feel like finishing things off or leaving you all wondering.

As for updates, I'll be starting updates come May 5th or 6th. The reason for this is that I have to reaquaint myself with the story once more as well as get the

next chapter rolling. Don't worry though, you'll be glad. Gollege level grammer and writing experiance trumps any highschool stuff I came up with.

That's all for now. Next chapter will be up again sometime next week. Look forward to it and give me ideas people. I'm no proffessional so any input will be

greatly appreciated. Criticism even more cause that's the stuff that makes people do better.

This is AM168 signing off.

PEACE


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